Inventory Reporting Enrollment Now Open for Angus Members

November 3, 2022

Inventory Reporting has been a popular reporting option among Angus members for Angus Herd Improvement Records (AHIR®) with more than 760 herds participating! The program is designed to help members keep complete production records on their females to better characterize traits such as fertility and longevity. Want to know more? Below are answers to some commonly asked questions. 

Interested in Inventory Reporting?

Keeping complete production records on the females in your herd accomplishes several things. For example, it makes for complete and unbiased data reporting, keeps a record for each cow annually in the herd, and helps you better manage data reporting for your herd. By being in the program, you have a complete list of females in your herd to report on annually. When it comes time for reenrollment of the herd, you will know if you missed reporting a calf or culling a cow from inventory.

Data submitted throughout the year works towards female meeting requirements. Inventory Reporting requires for each cow enrolled, reporting one of three things each year, 1) reporting a calf, 2) a reason for why there was no calf, or 3) a culling code and date if the female left the herd. The November 1-January 15 enrollment period is best suited for primarily spring-calving herds, while the May 1-July 15 is best suited for primarily fall-calving herds. 

 Benefits

Herds participating in Inventory Reporting will receive the research functional longevity EPD for registered animals in their herd, once the EPD is released. Females who are enrolled in Inventory Reporting have a $2 AHIR fee instead of the traditional $3 AHIR fee when a weight is submitted. Data like these complete production records, reason codes, and culling codes are needed to build a robust functional longevity tool. Members participating are working to gain insight into traits difficult to characterize such as fertility and longevity. In addition, complete, unbiased data recording continues to provide validity to the database which helps creates selection tools for you and your customers. Inventory Reporting members also receive additional management reports for their herd.

What about MaternalPlus?

MaternalPlus® is a designation for the herds that take the next step in Inventory Reporting. MaternalPlus requires the same information as Inventory Reporting plus the reporting of weaning weights for calves and heifer breeding records. Herds earning this designation have access to reports like the weaning sire summary reports, herd female production reports, disposal/culling reports, and more. They also receive CED (calving ease direct), BW (birth weight) and WW (weaning weight) EPDs on unregistered calves, and the badge found on EPD/Pedigree lookup. For members interested the MaternalPlus designation, enrolling in Inventory Reporting is the first step. 

Annual reenrollment 

Annual reenrollment is required for Inventory Reporting. What this means is the required information must be submitted by your annual reenrollment date. You do not have to wait for reenrollment to open to submit records — get your calf records, disposals and breeding records submitted throughout the year and the reenrollment will go more smoothly.

 For those members who enrolled from Nov. 2021 to Jan. 2022, your reenrollment period will be available from Nov. 1, 2022, through Jan. 15, 2023. The $2 fee for each female enrolled covers the cost of reporting AHIR information on the calf. Once all females have met requirements, checkout the updated inventory to complete reenrollment. 

 For members who enrolled in July, now is a good time to submit those fall calving records, report cows that did not calve, and cows that have been culled from the herd. For those enrolled in MaternalPlus, members who want to earn the designation or any member who wants to better characterize fertility in their herds, remember to enter the heifer breeding records, including artificial insemination (AI) and bull exposure. 

 To learn more about AHIR and Inventory Reporting, visit: ../../../Performance 

Source: American Angus Association