Chute

What it is for

The Chute is the field module: "Fast capture with the animal in front of you. Works with no signal — records are stored on the device and sent on their own." It has three tabs: Quick capture, Sessions and History, plus a Field sheet button for paper forms.

Quick capture: single or multiple

Quick capture is one activity on one animal or on as many as you select, with nothing to set up. Pick the activity, choose Single animal or Multiple animals, identify the animal (type, search or scan the tag/RFID) and the form unlocks. The thirteen activities are weight, treatment, FAMACHA, condition, scan (pregnancy), group change, defect, procedure, lambing, mating, entry, exit and death.

Sessions

A session is several activities in a row on the same group, for example FAMACHA, then deworm, then weigh. It can be paused and resumed, saved as a template, closed, reopened or voided. From a session you can treat, change group, record scan / reproductive status, weigh and wean, record departures and record lambings for a whole lot.

History

History lists every job done on the farm, inside or outside a session, grouped by day and job type, with the animal count, who did it and the lot. It filters by job type (weighing, treatment, health, FAMACHA, body condition, pregnancy diagnosis, lambing, weaning, mating, mating mark, group change) and group, shows the last 90 days by default and exports an activity report.

The activities, one by one

Weight: date, kg and the weight stage (birth, 30 d, 50 d, weaning, 90 d, 100 d, 120 d, adult, general, control). A checkbox marks the weaning on that date; weaning needs a birth date, otherwise the app asks you to add it first.

Treatment: date, product or free name, route (IM, SC, IV, oral, topical, ophthalmic, intramammary, other), reason and an optional review date; several medications can be added to one treatment. The dose is calculated only when the product has a valid dosing rule.

FAMACHA: a 1–5 category (1 red, healthy; 5 white, anemic) with the reference card at hand; the category is what gets recorded, the colour only helps you choose. A checkbox applies a dewormer from the cabinet in the same step. Settings › FAMACHA defines which scores trigger follow-up, treatment or culling recommendations; the rules only create visible recommendations and never treat or cull automatically.

The rule that flags animals repeating a high FAMACHA score within 12 months lives in Alerts (Alert settings), not in Settings › FAMACHA: the latter only decides which scores trigger follow-up, treatment or culling recommendations. The Animals filter also exposes "FAMACHA" and "days since last FAMACHA" so the list can be built by hand. The exact rule name and parameters will be cited here once confirmed in the app.

Condition: body condition score 1–5 (very thin, thin, ideal, fat, very fat). Scan: result (pregnant, empty, unknown) and method (ultrasound, palpation). Group change: leave the current group or only add, destination lot, reason and note. Defect: category (jaw/bite, horns/scurs, hooves/legs, conformation, testicles/reproductive, udder/teats, eyes/eyelids, spine/topline, mobility, other) with a visual guide. Procedure: hoof trimming, foot bath, shearing, tail docking, castration, crutching or other; a procedure carries no medication, dose or withdrawal, so it does not draw from the cabinet or block the animal for sale.

Lambing: sire, difficulty (unassisted, easy pull, hard pull, cesarean), one row per lamb (sex, alive/stillborn), observations about the ewe and official codes; see the Record lambing guide. Mating: date of the service. Entry: reason (purchase for breeding, for feeding, as replacement, transfer from another operation, re-entry, other) and destination lot. Exit and Death: date, code and notes; without a birth date the app cannot tell lamb from adult codes and asks you to check.

Web and mobile

The Chute is the module designed for the phone in the yard; the web version shown here has the same forms and is useful at a desk with a tag list in hand.