Planning for lambing has gone digital with the popular paper-based tool, the Lambing Planner, now available on a mobile app.
The Lambing Planner is a best practice guide for lambing, developed by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and Esperance-based farmer group ASHEEP.
Department senior development officer Mandy Curnow said the Lambing Planner had been one of the department’s most popular tools.
“It is a simple tool that allows producers to change a lambing date or a joining date to see the impacts of that on other key times in the reproductive year,” Ms Curnow said.
“It has had strong uptake as a hand-held, paper-based tool and is now available as an app in both Android and iOS formats.”
The Lambing Planner calculates other key milestones in the reproductive year based on producer entries and sets out key management operations that make up the breeding cycle, providing information on ewe and ram nutrition, condition score targets at different stages and reproductive management.
The calendar displays the stages of pregnancy or lactation and current recommended activities with more detailed information at the click of a button.
The lambing planner app recently won gold at the 2017 TECH Design Awards.
ASHEEP committee member Bob Reed said he appreciated efforts to convert the planner into an app, after the success of the paper-based tool.
“ASHEEP’s original intention with the planner was to sequence a system that made 100 percent lambing outcomes an expectation rather than a surprise,” Mr Reed said.
“Such outcomes are now becoming a reality for many Esperance farmers.”
The app is free to download on Android and iOS and more information can be found at agric.wa.gov.au/management-reproduction/lambing- planner.
Paper-based copies of the Lambing Planner remain available, from the department’s Katanning office, by contacting katanning.customerservicecoordinator@agric.wa.gov.au.
