Genetics

Technology: New App makes bull buying easier

Beef Central, 20/09/2012

 

Bull buyers now have access to a new piece of technology that enables them to easily access a range of information on their mobile phone when evaluating prospective bull purchases.

The newly released INSolutions mobile App has been developed by the Agricultural Business Research Institute in Armidale.

It is compatible with most iPhone and Android mobile devices and can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store or Google Play for a cost of $1.99.

The managing director of ABRI, Murray Scholz explained that the new INSolutions App builds on the features of the successful Internet Solutions web-based service and enables a far more user-friendly display of the information available regarding an animal when using a smart phone.

Many beef cattle breed societies in Australia currently provide a range of web-based services to beef producers based on ABRI's Internet Solutions software.

These services include provision of a complete online electronic herdbook for each breed that enables users to access a range of animal, EBV and member information from the internet, as well as online sale and semen catalogues. The services are normally made available via the breed organisation web page under the title of "Animal Search" or similar.

The INSolutions Mobile App is particularly designed to improve the ability of beef producers to view information more easily regarding individual animals when at a sale, show, agricultural event or simply in the paddock.

“When viewing sale bulls on sale day, the app enables bull buyers to view a range of information regarding each lot including a two-generation pedigree, complete EBVs and selection index information, the popular EBV graph display, vendor comments and a photo of each animal,” Mr Scholz said.

The INSolutions mobile App is fully interactive enabling bull buyers to easily search and sort the catalogue on particular criteria of interest, while a favourites feature enables sale lots of particular interest to be easily highlighted and viewed in a separate list.

While the app has been primarily designed to assist bull buyers, it is not limited to the viewing of sale catalogues, with Member Lookup, Animal Lookup and Semen Catalogue facilities also available.

These functions provide instant access to detailed information from the complete electronic herdbook for each registered breed organisation.

“In this manner, the app will also be of great benefit to beef producers when viewing animals in the paddock, at shows or other agricultural events, or when trying to obtain contact details for an individual seedstock producer,” Mr Scholz said.

The INSolutions Mobile App has been enabled for the 31 Australian beef breeds that currently utilise the Internet Solutions service. Internet Solutions is currently utilised by more than 80 of ABRI's clients across various livestock species and countries, and now attracts more than three million page views per month.

Further information regarding the INSolutions Mobile App, including a video, is available here.

 

 

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