Events

Events are specific, chronological actions or occurrences related to an animal within DC305. They are the building blocks of an animal's history, from freshening and breeding to health treatments and sales. Events are stored in the order of their occurrence and drive all herd-level reports and analysis.

Events are distinct from items, which are specific facts or data points about an animal, such as its ID, lactation number, or pen. Events typically contain more information than an item. The key purpose of recording an event is to capture a diagnosis or a significant occurrence, not just a treatment protocol. For example, you should record a MAST (mastitis) event, rather than a drug treatment, because the event is what you want to analyze later.

See Items Tabs to learn more about items in DC305.

Every animal in DC305 has a CowCard, which serves as its complete, chronological record. The Events tab on the CowCard is specifically dedicated to displaying an animal's event history and is divided into two sections:

  • The top section contains a list of 16 items relevant to the animal. These items are customizable; you can right-click on any item to add, change, or remove it from the display.

  • The bottom section lists the animal's most recent events in descending order from oldest to newest. These events represent the current lactation cycle and are considered the active lactation record for the animal.

    • In a V8 cowfile, a user may define 63 event codes, and a CowCard can display up to 64 events per lactation.

    • In a V10 cowfile, a user may define 199 event codes, and a CowCard can display up to 128 events per lactation.

  • With the exception of the BRED event, remarks can accompany any event entered into the CowCard. For a BRED event, the remarks field instead stores specific information such as the sire, technician, breeding result, and breeding code.

To manage an individual event directly on the CowCard, you can right-click it to either Change This Event or Erase This Event. This is the primary method for correcting a single event entry. You can also double-click on an event to change it.

IMPORTANT: The first 18 events in DC305 are standard and should not be changed or renamed. Changing these events can interfere with how the program functions and corrupt the internal coding that relies on them.
NOTE: When a SOLD or DIED event is erased from a CowCard, DC305 attempts to restore the animal's previous status from its archive record. If an archive record is not found, the animal's reproductive status will still be set to the correct state.

DC305 stores events as Event Codes (EC). For example, event code 1 is a FRESH event.

Enter the name of the event that you would like to record. You will then be prompted to enter the ID of the animal, the date of the event, and any other information about that event, such as a remark or a protocol (if entering a health event).

When the name of the event is used instead of the event code, it is called a command abbreviation. Command abbreviations consist not only of the event code, but also a string of other components that are also executed. You can find these using the ALTER9 : Events and ALTER3 : Command Abbreviations commands. To handle unknown treatment names from outside sources, use the ALTER7 : Protocols command to define and map these drug names as treatment protocols. You can then link these protocols to specific disease events.

To customize the information recorded for dams and calves during fresh, review ALTER12 : FRESH Event Definitions.

You can control what prompts appear when you enter an event by adding or removing components from the command abbreviation. Below are some examples:

  • Event Date (EDAY): Adding EDAY to the abbreviation prompts you for the event date. To automatically set the date to today's date, simply remove EDAY from the command. For example, EC=19 REM.

  • Remarks (REM): Adding REM to the command prompts you for a remark. You can remove this if not needed.

  • Additional Items: To prompt for additional items (for example, the COST associated with a treatment), simply add the item to the command abbreviation. For example: EC=19 EDAY REM COST.

  • Setting Items Automatically: If an item should always be set to a specific value when an event occurs, you can assign it directly in the command. For example, the abbreviation DRY = ENTER EC=11 EDAY REM PEN=5 will automatically set the animal's pen to 5 when DRY is entered.

NOTE: For each animal entered with the FRESH event, the system prompts for calf information. After entering the ID for the first calf, the system will automatically suggest the next sequential number for any subsequent calves entered.

Events can be entered for a specific animal or for a group of animals using a FOR statement, as in the following examples:

  • FRESH FOR 33: Enters the FRESH event only for animal ID 33.

  • PREG FOR PEN=5: Declares all animals in pen 5 as pregnant. (This is useful for reconfirming dry cows as pregnant to exclude them from vet lists that search for OPEN animals.)

IMPORTANT: Be cautious when utilizing FOR statements for event entry. For instance, executing DIED FOR ID>0 will result in the disposal of all animals within the herd. It is imperative to recognize that the system executes commands precisely as instructed, which may not always align with your intended outcome.

See the topics below to learn more about Events.

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