Information Technology Notes July 2011

DARD Online Services (DOS) have been available for over eight years now, starting with the introduction of APHIS Online in 2002. The concept of doing business online, even in the early 2000’s, was seen by many farmers as complicated and unnecessary, hence the uptake of APHIS Online was slow. Most farmers were happy to continue with DARD’s paper based registration system. In the subsequent years CAFRE developed and promoted DOS and has trained thousands of farmers. This effort has resulted in many farmers changing from doing their business on paper to completing transactions such as animal registrations online.

Online usage steadily increased in the early years with online cattle birth registrations settling at about 25 percent of all registrations. In 2010, CAFRE embarked on a new programme to highlight the benefits and help farmers access DARD Online Services, including the SAF (Single Application Form) and online maps. The result of this programme has been the biggest increase in uptake of online services in recent years and for the first time ever, there were as many calves registered online as on paper.

To build upon this success, CAFRE have improved some aspects of the APHIS Online system. Users of the system regularly provide feedback and a number of suggestions were made, which have been incorporated to make it easier to use. If you haven’t had a chance to login and see the improvements yet, I will highlight some below.

As a result of users wanting to check all calf details before the information was sent to DARD, we now display the calf number with all its details before it is registered. The information can be edited if necessary.

Users didn’t like having to click through lots of web pages before they could create and print a movement document. Now the date, location and animals are all selected on the same web page. Finding the correct animals has been made easier. Users just type in three digits of the animal number and only animals with that number will be shown, which is much quicker than searching through the whole herd list.

In the past if you wanted to see your animals’ calving history and full movement history you had to type in the full tag number or pick it from the herd list. Now, you can click on an animal number displayed anywhere on APHIS Online. It could be from your current or ‘Point in Time’ herd list, including dams and sires. Any animal number displayed on the animal detail report, including calf numbers can be picked. Even the animal numbers listed on the movement report can be chosen, showing you where the animal has come from and any calves born to that cow.

Results for all herds and flocks in your business will now be displayed when you request a Nitrates Action Programme stock count, making it easier to manage your stocking levels and ensure that you are complying with regulations.

If you have any comments about the changes or ideas for improvements please contact the DARD Online Services help desk, telephone: 028 9442 6699 or email: aphis@ruralni.gov.uk.

The improved animal birth registration page

The improved animal details page

The improved animal details page