The AAA Login electronic calving book entry is a tool very familiar to Angus members. This tool allows you to create a new calf record for the dams in your herd. A new feature has been added to the calving book entry in Login that will help members in determining which bull is the most likely sire of a calf. 

This feature determines the most likely sire of the calf by looking back at breeding and pregnancy-check records that have been submitted. If the dam does not have breeding and pregnancy-check data submitted, the feature cannot be used. 

How does it work?

The electronic calving book can be found in your Login account by clicking on “Submit,” then “AHIR/Performance.” Once you click on Calving or Calving/Weaning, you will be given multiple filter options to find females to enter calves. 

To use the most likely sire feature, you will need to select a specific breeding set (Figure 1). The breeding data set is the calving season and breeding year as specified when breeding data was submitted. When you select a breeding set, the list of dams to select from will only include females with a record in the set. 

Once you select a dam, you will be taken to the electronic calving book entry. The first section on the page will be for the calf’s sire and dam information. The most likely sire feature will automatically populate a sire from the breeding records based on the breeding and preg-check records submitted for the dam (Figure 2). The sire is determined using the days pregnant at the time of preg-check to select the most likely sire based on the dates of the dam’s exposures.

Even though the sire will be automatically populated, you can still edit this field. If you need to change the sire that is populated, you can edit the field prior to submitting the record to override the most likely sire that was selected. 

What if the sire is blank?

If a sire was not automatically populated, the most likely sire was not able to be determined from the records. One reason this could happen is because pregnancy-check records were not submitted for the breeding set. Without pregnancy-check records, there is no way to determined the most likely sire.

Another reason the sire would be blank is because there is more than one potential sire. If there were overlapping exposure dates that correspond to the number of days pregnant at the time of pregnancy check, a sire will not be populated. If this occurs, you will be shown a message indicating the sire could not be determined and can view the breeding record by clicking on the link below the sire information fields to select a sire. 

How does this help?

Submitting data on the calves born is very important to account for the production of the females in your herd and also to open up opportunities to collect and submit data on the calves’ performance throughout their lifetime. 

This feature will help you quickly add sires to calf records based on the data you have already submitted and also decrease the number of potential mistakes, which saves time down the road. Members are encouraged to utilize this Login feature to help streamline their data submission process.  

Editor’s note: For more information, please contact the Association Member Services Department at 816-383-5100 or email llanders@angus.org.