Frustrated with your current record keeping? Are you frustrated with your current recording system for your cattle? Can’t you find the records of animals vaccinated, or when a cow has calved, or how her calves performed? Are you struggling to keep up with your record keeping and administration? Do you need accurate, reliable data to select your animals for culling, selling or breeding? Don’t you get the best prices because you can’t provide the needed information to prospective buyers? 

Do you need to know with the push of a button how many animals are in the herd (per camp, management group and/or category); what animals are pregnant and when they are going to calf; which breeding animals reproduce poorly (e.g. never calved, long inter-calving period, long time since last calving, poor reproduction index); what is the pregnancy, calving and weaning percentage; the progeny of which breeding animals produces poorly (e.g. low weaning weights, low weaning indices and/or poor breeding values); how many and what animals were born, sold, purchased, died, with a certain period of time (with values/prices where applicable); what is the total and average weight and income of animals sold; what is the production and income per hectare or per LSU; what is the total income and expenditure and net income? Read further and see how BenguFarm BEEF can assist you.

BenguFarm-BEEF provides an easy to use, tried and trusted alternative to using your own recording system. It is your all-in-one on-farm beef management information system. It was developed for easy and efficient record keeping of an inventory of animals, movement of animals, evaluation of reproduction, production and appearance for use in selection and breeding, day-to-day management, stock registers, expenditures and income as well as marketing. It is the ideal management software for precision farming. The program is specifically designed for the needs of the South African beef cattle farmer and it caters for all aspects of beef cattle recording and management: from purchase data, matings, pregnancy tests, calvings, weights, performance testing, pedigrees, vaccinations, disease tests, diseases, injuries and treatments, procedures, photos, documents to sales, mortalities and camp activities, including feed put out per camp. It even has a very handy rainfall calendar.

For the stud breeder, BenguFarm-BEEF provides, except for the above, also for embryo flushings and implants, inspections, visual scoring, etcetera.

In a Nutshell

• Easy to use, tried and trusted all-in-one on-farm beef cattle information software.
• Developed by BenguelaSoft, a South African company specialising in livestock and game software.
• Equally suitable for both stud and commercial herds.
• Easy and quick view of all animal data on the main window.
• Easy to populate the database with your animal data using various data importing options and/or manual recording.
• Fully integrated with electronic identification systems.
• Integrated diary and management calendar.
• Animals can be linked to calving seasons, camps and management groups.
• Stud breeders can send data to the applicable service provider (e.g. Stud Book, breeders’ society, Breedplan) in the correct format. Registration data, performance data and breeding values can easily be imported.
• Calculates various reproduction and growth traits (e.g. adjusted weights, growth per day and growth indexes) in a scientific sound and easy to use way.
• Recording, processing and reporting of all income and expenditures and related production stats.
• Recording, processing and reporting of all feedlot data on the Feedlot Manager window.
• More than 60 reports and recording (kraal) lists for stock taking, general and health management, breeding, performance testing, selection and marketing.
• BenguFarm Mobile app for off-line viewing and capturing of all important data on the spot while working with animals.
• User-friendly manual, on-screen step-by-step help, various training options and friendly, readily available support by a network of agents.

About BenguelaSoft

BenguFarm-BEEF is developed by BenguelaSoft, a South African company specialising in livestock and game software. BenguelaSoft has a track record of 19 years in the farming industry. BenguFarm-BEEF is one of the modules of the BenguFarm package with modules also for game, sheep, goats and pigs. All modules are developed on the same platform and principles – if you know one, you will easily master all the others. Each module is however customised for the needs and requirements of the specific species. BenguFarm is used by more than 1250 farmers across 11 countries and 4 continents. BenguFarm is endorsed by SA Stud Book as well as 21 beef cattle and sheep breeders’ societies.

BenguFarm-BEEF was developed with the inputs of various prominent animal scientists, veterinarians and institutions like SA Stud Book, universities, DNA laboratories, etc. to ensure that the software complies with all scientific and technical standards. The project leader since the inception of the development of the software, Mr Leslie Bergh, is ‘n well known professional animal scientist with 42 years experience in the livestock industry, specifically animal recording. The ongoing inputs of our clients ensure that the program is custom-made to suit the needs of all beef cattle farmers, breeders and related institutions. The development approach is very much user-driven: users’ requests and suggestions enjoy high priority in the ongoing development and upgrading of the software. In this way we ensure that the programme suits the needs of all farmers and institutions.

Stud and Commercial

BenguFarm is equally suitable for both stud and commercial herds/flocks and can be used either as an independent herd management programme or as an integral part of stud breeding and/or performance testing through SA Stud Book, the ARC, BreedPlan. More than one herd/flock (e.g. stud and commercial) can be set up on the programme at no additional cost.

Most of the management features BenguFarm caters for (e.g. linking of animals to camps & management groups, matings & AI, pregnancy tests, births, weighs, vaccinations, dosing, diseases, injuries, treatments, procedures, photos and documents, camp activities, animal sightings, purchases, sales, culls, mortalities, stock register and rainfall) and all related calculations and reports apply to all animals, irrespective if they are stud or commercial.

The few features (e.g. data sending to and importation from a service provider such as SA Stud Book, ARC, BreedPlan or breeder's society) and data fields in BenguFarm which are only applicable to stud breeding can be hidden for commercial herds to keep the program simple and make it user-friendly.

BenguFarm is the only management software which does all performance data (e.g. weaning weights and post weaning weights) processing exactly according to SA Stud Book’s Production Recording system (Logix). Most commercial farmers will only be interested in index calculations and corrected weights for traits recorded on cows/ewes, calves/lambs and replacement heifers/ewes (e.g. weaning weights and post weaning weights). Only the few features in BenguFarm which relate to growth tests (e.g. feed intake, body measurements and ultrasonic measurements of carcass traits), will normally not be used by commercial farmers.

Main Window

A unique feature is that the main window can be used to view the data of animals. There are two options: With the animal view option all data, photos and documents of an animal can be viewed quickly via various interchangeable view windows (e.g. birth data, pedigree, photos, reproduction data, progeny, vaccinations, diseases and treatments, procedures and notes), without the need to create a report. With the herd view option, the important data of the entire herd or a selected group can be viewed, sorted, grouped, selected to link to a group, etc..

Importing and Creating Animal Records

It is easy to populate the BenguFarm database with your animal data using various methods. Data can, for example, be imported from Excel or files received from SA Stud Book (Logix), Breedplan, ARC (Intergis) or a breeders’ society. Data can also be imported from certain other farm software packages, e.g Studmaster, Herdmaster and Mobile Livestock. Animals can also be recorded on the BenguFarm Mobile app and imported into BenguFarm. Farmers using RFID or QR code tags, can record animals on an EID reader or QR reader and import the data into BenguFarm. If needed, animal data can be entered easily and quickly by hand via a screen specifically developed for this purpose. (If you need assistance with preparation and importing of Excel data, please contact Mr. Leslie Bergh at 082 801 2026 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). When animals are purchased, the seller can create an electronic file in BenguFarm-BEEF and send to the buyer which he can import into his BenguFarm-BEEF and immediately have the animals' full information on record.

Importing Weights and Other Data

BenguFarm makes provision for the importation of weights, etc. from electronic scales. Most electronic cattle scales have a feature whereby you can create an export file of recorded weights, etc. This file can then be imported into BenguFarm. A comprehensive integration feature is also available for Tru-Test XR5000 scales. Through this feature, the XR5000 scale fields can be updated, BenguFarm fields linked to scale fields, animals uploaded to the scale and data imported from the scale. Full integration with EID use is implemented with this feature.

Integration with Electronic ID number (EID) Tag and QR code Readers

Regarding data capturing, BenguFarm can integrate with any EID reader with data capture capability on the reader itself and from which it can be exported in CSV format. EID readers, such as the Tu-Test XRS2 stick reader (and others), allow for limited data capturing on the reader itself from which it can then be exported in CSV format using the Tru-Test Data Link app. Although BenguFarm currently does not provide for importing data directly from such EID readers into BenguFarm, the data can be imported into BenguFarm via the CSV format file. Another option (that we recommend) is to pair the EID reader with the BenguFarm Mobile app (see the paragraph below), do the recording on the app and synchonise it afterwards from the Mobile app to the PC/laptop.

BenguFarm's BEEF and SHEEP & GOATS modules and BenguFarm's MOBILE app also integrate with other EID readers. On certain Agrident and Allflex EID readers, a variety of data can be recorded on the reader and then imported directly from the reader into BenguFarm.

BenguFarm also integrates with QR code readers. The QR code encodes the animal's visual IDnr. BenguFarm MOBILE for Android and iOS was tested with Newland NLS-HR32-BT QR Code Scanner. Other QR scanners which support Bluetooth BLE mode communication should also work. Please test compatibility before buying any other QR scanner.

Diary and Management Calendar

The programme has an internal integrated diary and management calendar that the farmer can set up according to his specific needs. Management tasks requiring attention is displayed in the diary to make it easier for the farmer to remember important tasks.

Camps and Groups

Animals can be linked to calving seasons, camps, management groups and sale or cull groups which the farmer can set up himself. Groups of the various categories are independent of each other. An animal can, for example, be linked to a calving season group, camp group and a sale/cull group. Groups enable quick and easy selection of animals to display on a screen or to include in reports and recording lists. Animals can easily be moved between camps and/or groups and/or herds to keep track of what animals are or were in a specific camp, group and herd.

Data Send to and Import from Service Providers

The stud breeder can easily send data like matings, births, weights and transfers & cancellations to the applicable service provider (e.g. Stud Book, breeders’ society, DNA laboratory, Breedplan, the ARC and the Namibian Stud Breeders Association) in the correct format. Registration data, performance data and breeding values can easily be imported into the programme.

Reproduction and Growth Calculations

BenguFarm-BEEF automatically does various reproduction calculations like age at first calving, inter-calving periods, days since the last calving and the reproduction index. Expected calving dates are calculated using species-specific reproduction parameters and herd-specific settings. Pregnancy percentage, calving percentage and weaning percentage are also calculated.

Regarding performance testing, BenguFarm-BEEF is the only beef cattle management software which calculates various reproduction and growth traits (e.g. adjusted weights, growth per day and growth indexes) in exactly the same way as the Logix system of SA Studbook, irrespective if it is for a commercial or stud herd. This valuable information can be used by the farmer for selection, breeding and management of his animals.

Inbreeding

Inbreeding is a very an important aspect to consider in breeding. If parentage is recorded, high levels of inbreeding can easily be avoided, as inbreeding coefficients are estimated for the progeny of planned matings, including warnings where a specific mating will result in high inbreeding. The programme automatically also calculates inbreeding of all existing animals.

There is also an optional Genetics breeding management module which enables stud breeders to determine, with the aid of breeding values and pedigrees, the best matings for the breeding goals that he set for his herd.

Prices and Values

Apart from purchase and selling prices, book, market and tax values of animals can also be recorded.

Notes, Appearance and Scores

General notes, appearance remarks and scores (like condition score and general appearance scores) can also be recorded.

Milk Data

Milk production and milk analysis can be recorded for those herds milking their animals.

Photos and Documents

An unlimited number of photos, documents (e.g. DNA certificates, invoices, fertility certificates and vet reports) and videos can be saved and displayed for an animal. Photos of an animal can be displayed on certain reports.

Stock, Used and Costs

BenguFarm provides for stock registries for vaccines, remedies, supplements, medicines, semen, feed and lick. With the recording of vaccinations, dosings, supplements, treatments and inseminations as well as feed and lick used, the stock in question is automatically updated. The total amount and cost are also calculated.

Expenses and Income

All expenses and income can be recorded in BenguFarm. Certain expenses (e.g. AI, pregnancy tests, vaccinations, treatments, fertility tests) can be recorded per animal along with the relevant data. Feed and lick expenses can be recorded per camp or kraal. General expenses such as labor, fuel and breeders' society fees can be recorded as general expenses.

Feedlots

BenguFarm makes provision for capturing, processing and reporting of all feedlot data on the Feedlot Manager window. On this window, pen groups can be created, animals linked to pen groups and quantities of feed put out per pen captured. Individual animal records can be kept for purchase information, vaccinations, illnesses and treatments, weights and sale/slaughter data, including live weight, carcass weight, dressing percentage. Calculations are done per animal for weight gain, last two ADGs, costs, income and net profit. Pen group summaries are provided for total feed quantities, average feed conversion ratio, average ADG, total costs, income and net profit.

Veterinary Network

Veterinary Network is a network of veterinarians that focus on the maintenance and improvement of livestock health, production and welfare in South Africa. All participating members own and operate independent veterinary practices providing livestock health services, but these veterinarians spend most of the day rushing around to help and save sick animals. There is never enough time to provide the livestock owner with information on disease prevention plans and cost-effective livestock remedies. Veterinary Network was set up to provide support to the network of participating rural veterinary practices and their livestock clients. This is done by monitoring livestock disease trends, supplying relevant livestock health information and a structured computer program for the development of cost-effective disease prevention management plans for each livestock client.

Participating veterinarians can assign a standardized management plan(s) to a client or can, in consultation with the client, set up a custom management plan. Management plans are e-mailed to clients by participating veterinarians at the start of each month.

By means of the Veterinary Network feature in the BenguFarm BEEF and SHEEP & GOATS modules, clients of participating veterinarians can integrate the management plans into BenguFarm as an interactive Veterinary Network Calendar. This calendar also includes performance test dates and custom diary entries you may have created in the standard BenguFarm calendar. A user can click on an item in the Veterinary Network Calendar. This will display information such as the group of animals to which the action is applicable, age, cycle stage, description of the action, how often the action should take place and where applicable, which treatment or action should be applied together with suggested dosage. In some cases, additional information is available in the form of a PDF document that can be downloaded and viewed. The Veterinary Network Calendar will also list the animals which are currently applicable to the action. The user can then print work lists, linked the animals to groups or open them in a My Animal Data report. It should be evident that the Veterinary Network Calendar is an alternative to the build-in BenguFarm Management Calendar. The two is not meant to work interactively, with the Veterinary Network Calendar supplying more functionalities and information. The Veterinary Network Calendar will also be in upcoming versions of the Veterinary Network Daily Observation Card (DOC) app. The DOC app is available for Android phones and tablets from the Google Play Store.

You need to log in to be able to use the integrated Veterinary Network Calendar. To login, use the same username and password as you use on the Veterinary DOC App. You can register for free with Veterinary Network with the DOC app. As stated above, to be able to use these integrated features, your veterinarian has to set up a custom management plan(s) for your herd(s) or either assign one of his/her default practice plans to you.

Reports

The program has more than 60 reports and recording (kraal) lists for general and health management, breeding, performance testing, selection, marketing and herd administration. (See Info > Report Examples and Screenshots for examples of a few reports). To name but a few:

• Several recording lists (for weights, matings, pregnancies, calvings, vaccinations, etc.) for easy recording of data in the crush or in the field.
• The Herd List report for easy and quick checking which animals are in the herd and to verify their basic information.
• The Animal Numbers and Values report gives a summary of the animal numbers (within or across herds) per category, including total book, market and tax values as well as livestock units.
• The DNA Services Request form can be printed and send with the DNA samples to the applicable DNA laboratory.
• The Mating Summary per Bull and/or Season report gives mating, pregnancy and calving data, including pregnancy and calving percentage, per bull or bull group and season.
• The Heifers and Cows near Calving report enable you to be prepared for females which are near calving.
• The Breeding Herd Selection report makes it very easy to quickly select cows and heifers on reproduction and production figures according to norms that the farmer can choose according to his standards.
• The Weights and Gains report is very useful to monitor and evaluate the weight gains and growth per day for any given period. This is especially useful for feedlots and on-farm bull growth tests.
• The Performance Test Results report makes it easy to select and evaluate calves and their mothers using the performance test indexes (e.g. Weaning index and Cow Efficiency Index).
• The Animal Summary report combines all the important information of an animal on a one-page report.
• A Sale Catalogue report makes marketing (out of hand or at auction) of animals by breeders easily and efficiently. Lot numbers can be allocated and remarks added. The farm's logo can be printed on the report.
• The Animals per Camp or Group report list all the animals in a camp for the selected camp(s) or group(s) and herd. The user can customise the layout of the report and save his favourite layout(s) for later use. Purchases and Sales reports with date, buyer/seller, price, event, etc.
• The Animal Numbers Reconciliation report gives a list of all animal movements for a specific period in and out of the herd, e.g. animals purchased, calves born, animals sold, animals hunted, mortalities, with income and expenses where applicable.
• The Herd Production Summary report gives the total and average production for a selected period for a number of parameters, e g. total and average weaning weight and compare it with a long-term period.
• The Pasture Utilisation per Camp report gives the pasture utilisation of camps for a selected period.
• The Herd Income and Expenditure Summary report gives the income and expenditures per item as well as the net income for a selected period.

The user can also compile his own tailor-made reports – including criteria for animals to be included, traits and data fields to display and how the data should be sorted or grouped. The criteria and layouts of tailor-made reports can be saved for easy future use. It can, like all other reports, be exported in various formats, including Excel and pdf.

Computers and Language

BenguFarm-BEEF can be installed on any computer or tablet with Windows 7, 8, 10 or 11. (On an Apple Mac a virtual Windows can be installed and then BenguFarm can be run on it). The programme can be set up in both English and Afrikaans. It can be used for all more than one herd and on more than one computer of the same owner without any additional cost. Owner and farm manager, office and home computers, desktop, laptop or Windows tablet, can have BenguFarm-BEEF on it. Various options are available to sync the BenguFarm database on these computers and your BenguFarm agent will determine the best option taking into consideration your specific circumstances and needs.

BenguFarm-MOBILE App

BenguFarm Mobile, an Android and iOS app, has been released in 2019. This app enables beef cattle farmers to capture animal data on a smartphone or tablet with an Android or iOS operating system and to synchronise it with the BenguFarm-BEEF data on the breeder’s computer.

Data on the breeder's BenguFarm-BEEF can be sent from his computer to BenguFarm-MOBILE on a smartphone or tablet. This data can then be viewed on the smartphone or tablet when working with the animals. The app can be used to off-line capture all important data on the spot while working with animals. Data that can be captured include new animals (registration), synchronisation of ovulation, matings, pregnancy tests, calvings, weights, general notes, vaccinations, camp/group movements, illnesses, treatments, inspections, sightings, measurements, procedures, sales and deaths. Recording of data on BenguFarm-MOBILE does not need Internet access. When finished with recording, the information recorded on BenguFarm-MOBILE can be sent (synchronised) to the BenguFarm-BEEF database to bring the data on the computer(s) up to date. Synchronisation of data can be done via Wi-Fi or the Internet ("Cloud"), depending on which method is available and the method preferred by the user. For more information about the BenguFarm Mobile app, see Products > BenguFarm Mobile.

User-friendliness, Support and Training

After sales support and training is very important for all software users. BenguelaSoft has agents in most provinces and in Namibia. When purchasing the software, BenguelaSoft assigns one of our agents to the client. The agent will help with installation, importing of data, training and support where needed. BenguFarm-BEEF is very easy to use with the help of a user-friendly manual and a step-by-step help feature on most screens. Training courses, online training and on-farm training options are available. Training courses are held on a regular basis country wide in SA and in other countries. The most common feedback from people who attended courses is that the program is much easier to use and offer much more than that they expected.

Development of the Software

BenguelaSoft continuously develops new and improved features and reports in BenguFarm. The development is very much user-driven to ensure the software satisfy the needs of the users and the industry in general. We, therefore, welcome feedback and proposals of the users of the software.

All-in-One

Say goodbye to the days of looking for info all over the place – have EVERYTHING stored in an easy-to-find way and all together on a simple and easy-to-use program. Whether you are a stud breeder or commercial farmer, no matter how big or small your herd is, or how much or little you would like to record – BenguFarm-BEEF cater for all your needs.

Comments from Users:

"My pa het my altyd gewaarsku teen die “boekwerk” van stoetboerdery. Met BenguFarm-BEEF is hierdie frustrerende “boekwerk” egter omskep in ‘n magtige bestuursprogram. Ek is seker dat as ek my pa kon wys hoe maklik kuddebestuur nou is, hy sou saamstem dat die BenguFarm-BEEF program seker die handigste stuk gereedskap op enige beesplaas is – stoet of kommersieel."
Mnr. Gerrit van Zyl, Hanzyl Bonsmaras, Dewetsdorp.

"Well structured with great features and versatile report capabilities makes BenguFarm-BEEF the ideal beef management software."
Mr. Russell Clark, Kenrussmark Hereford & HBH Tuli Studs, Dordrecht