COMMITTEE REPORT

from October 2021 Brangus Journal

by International Brangus Breeders Association

CATTLEFAX TRENDS

REGSTR ADVISORY COMMITTEE UPDATES

by Brad Wright, Regstr Advisory Committee chairman

For those that are unaware, the IBBA board designated a special Regstr Advisory committee in December 2020. The advisory committee consists of a great cross section of Regstr users that have a unique background to not only advise, but to test and validate new processes. The committee members are Brad Wright, Mike Weathers, Cindy Holbert, Cody Gariss, Lisa Neal, Jessica Hoerster, Jeremy Jackson, Rob Singleton and Mary Douglass. This committee has been working diligently with Dr. Wilkes and Andrew Sicotte to assist in identifying priority items needed to improve the user experience of Regstr so that members can effectively manage all aspects of their registered Brangus cattle.

One of the first major items tackled was to revamp the transfer screen. Improvements to this screen not only make it easier to transfer cattle to buyers, but there were also important underlying rules that needed to be accounted for at this level in order to move on to other phases. Proper tracking of ownership history is vital to our association rules. We also used this opportunity to build in breeding logs and tracking. The breeding logs were very important in enhancing rules for buyers to register resulting progeny, identify potential needs for DNA due to multi-sire exposures and lay the groundwork to enhance data collection that can impact accuracy of our fertility traits.

By the time you are reading this, the next major development will be launched- registration. A complete revamp of the registration process will greatly improve the efficiency of registration and the intuitiveness of the system. For those that like to import data from outside sources, this will be available for all members to populate the registration screen. Even for those entering individual calves, the data will lay into a more familiar spreadsheet flow and will guide the user through each step and features like the breeding logs will be integrated to suggest the most probable sires. With improvements in validation rules, the issues seen with prefixes and generations should be fixed. The new registration feature will be the biggest improvement since Regstr was launched. As with anything new, it will take some time to get used to the new navigation, but Dr. Wilkes has done an outstanding job in preparing tutorials that are available to all members. The committee members have been very hands on in developing these features and all will be willing to discuss any questions that may arise as new processes are embraced.

Another major component of the registration rebuild is to improve staff function to edit animals and data within the database. We know there will be errors and changes that need to be made and it is imperative that these changes be able to be made with minimal opportunities for human error and as little manual manipulation as possible. This means building out the edit, so that if a sire changes, prefix and generation are automatically recalculated. By automating this process, the data integrity processes that are vital to a sound database will stay intact.

Once registration is launched, the next item on the priority list is to assist the staff with a more automated approach to DNA parent verification. The current DNA ordering system has been very efficient in submitting new samples, however, there is still a back log in calling parentage and returning results to members. Most of this is due to the manual nature of the parent verification process. There are solid plans in place to help automate this function that will not only get results back faster, but also free up the staff to help concentrate on problem animals that need more assistance to solve.

Outside of these big items are some on-going improvements to user features. There are layout changes coming to help improve flow and functionality and a complete rework of the search functions to be able to look up animals more easily and search the database for EPD parameters that can help your herd. As progressive animal breeders, it is imperative to be able to search the IBBA database for genetics that can be utilized to improve your herds. Having a viable EPD search tool has been one of the most requested improvements and will certainly be addressed.

It is important to realize that changes take time, but the staff and this committee are focused on building the best registry system in the industry. We are always open to ideas and suggestions and hope that anyone with ideas, problems, and most importantly solutions, continue to reach out and let us know what you think.

For more information or to provide feedback contact Brad Wright at brad@ranchhandanalytics.com.