Enteric module introduction

Category

Data point

Description

Rancher 

ID

A unique ID to attribute outcomes to a rancher and to track that rancher overtime.

There is no concept of a field in these calculations. All calculations will be applied at the project and rancher level.

practice_change

(optional) Enables passing a set of meta data on the rancher for that project. Follow up with Regrow required to use this.

Management Cohort: 

A cohort represents a number of animals, age, and diet for a given period of time.

This is a homogeneous group of like individuals (e.g. all same age class -> all cows, all heifers, etc) that are on the same diet for some amount of time. Multiple cohorts can exist at the same time. Clients should construct their cohorts as they see fit for their rancher’s management (management group, herd, mobs).

This API does not support mixed species herds. 

An example might be a group of cow-calf pairs where cows will be in a cohort and their calves in a separate cohort starting at birth and ending at weaning both with different diets. 

Name

We need a unique ID for management of a cohort and for QA.

A farmer may think of this as a herd name; however cohorts are not intended to last for very long. Rather they are only to track the herd’s stage and diet over that time period (an example of a cohort might be “Herd A Heifers spring diet”). Once the cohort is sold or other major event then the cohort date ends.

Location

Polygon coordinates passed one time. No subfield.

Livestock type

We only accept type beef cattle today.

Age class

Age (heifer, cow, calf, etc) is used as a way to group like-individuals (e.g. 150 cows, 100 heifers). 

Final values will be both normalized using age class to calculate an “animal units” (e.g. 1 age class, bull = 1.5 animal units) and will also be broken out per age class.

Initial head count

This is the count of cattle at the cohort formation, with arrivals and departure events (details below) composing the changes to that amount over the cohort period.

Start and end interval

The period in which that cohort management is consistent. 

Total start weight 

Average weight per animal (e.g. weight for 1 cow) at the start of the cohort period or upon arrival. 

Units accepted: Pounds

Total end weight

Average weight per animal (e.g. weight for 1 cow) at the end of the cohort period. This will be used as an input to the denominator when accounting per live weight.

Units accepted: Pounds

Cohort type

Terminal: Individuals are managed for the purpose of meat production. 

• This is most likely to include calves/weaned calves/heifers/steers all growing on farm for a planned future sale to background/feedlot and eventual slaughter. 
• This may also include breeding stock, like a group of cows, that have aged out of breeding and now bound for slaughter. 

Nonterminal: Individuals are managed for all other non-meat production purposes like reproduction, replacement stock, etc. 

• This might include breeding stock cows of a cow-calf pair or replacement breeding stock that is on a ranch. It may also include cattle that are moved around from management groups but never sold for slaughter. 

For final calculations, the type (terminal or nonterminal) is assumed for all remaining animals at the end date of the cohort that did not depart during the cohort period

Diet

Sets the diet for what the entire cohort is eating per day.

Diet is intended to be constant throughout the start and stop of a cohort, unless a diet change event occurs (see below). 

Management events 

Represents the change of animal count or diet earlier than the ending of the cohort. These events are to account for unpredicted change of the otherwise stable group of animals.

Arrivals and Departures

For a given cohort, that otherwise goes unchanged, we need to account for individuals added/removed earlier than the end of the bigger cohort.

Arrivals and Departures are instantaneous events that happen on a specific date.

Arrivals: 

If there is an arrival then the count is added to the cohort and all animals and diet are assumed homogenous to the cohort.

Arrivals start weight

For arrival events, it is required to add an estimated start weight. This will refine calculations of the cohorts daily weight gain calculations as new individuals arrive. 

Departures:

If there is a departure event then the count is reduced.

Departure reason and weight

For departure events, it is required to add a reason and an estimated weight at the time of departure if the departure event is terminal. We ask this to determine if an individual should be included as a terminal unit in the final calculation.

• Terminal: Departure from the cohort is specifically for meat production, including a sell to background/feedlot or direct slaughter.

This might include unexpected sell of aging breeding stock to slaughter, or early selling of steers/heifers due to market conditions, body score, etc.

When a terminal animal departs early from a cohort, weight at departure is required. 

• Nonterminal: Departure from the cohort is for all non-meat production purposes. 

This may include an unexpected death/culling on ranch, moving individuals to a new management cohort to retain for breeding stock, aging out into a new management cohort.

Diet change

Allows a rancher to change the diet but keep the cohort intact.

A diet change will indicate the diet was modified on that date and will replace any and all previous diets for the cohort. The diet change will be assumed to continue until the end date of the cohort or until another diet change event.

• If there is only one diet for the cohort period then assume that diet for the entirety.
• If there is a date of diet change then assume that new diet for the remainder of the cohort period or until another subsequent diet change.

Reporting info

reporting_information

Start and end of the quantification time period.

• Should the reporting period, 12 months 
• Cohort dates can extend beyond the reporting period. But measurement will only take place during the reporting period.