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NSR Strives to Do Business Faster, Easier
by Andrea McCann
“Time is money,” the saying goes. The National Swine Registry staff knows that efficient use of both is important to their members’ business. In an effort to help members cut back on paperwork, trips to the post office, fax and mailing fees, NSR put their litter registration form and AI certificates online, and they strongly encourage members to take advantage.
Joe and Georgia Lancaster, of Lancaster Hampshires in Ada, Okla., use both online services and highly recommend them. Joe says they’ve registered their litters and purchased AI certificates online since NSR started offering them that way, and they haven’t had a problem.
“It’s great,” he says. “It’s a lot better than the old way.”
“The old way” involved filling out paper forms by hand and mailing them in. Joe says it took him longer to fill out those forms than it does to plug the information into the computer forms. The mail service, he says, usually took two to three days. Then they had to wait for the paperwork to be processed and mailed back. With the online service, breeders can send their information to NSR instantly and can expect a response within a day.
“We do it for the speed and convenience,” Joe says. “The old way is workable, but I’d recommend doing it online if you’re equipped.”
Being properly equipped could be a problem for some breeders, Joe admits. He says not having a computer, modem and Internet service is obviously a big drawback. He also knows from experience that older computer systems can slow down the process.
According to Robin Lucas, administrative assistant at NSR, keeping the procedures up to speed is a goal for the registry. They aim to put the database on a new server of its own to help keep it from getting bogged down. However, she assures that members who log on are not getting into the actual NSR system database, so no one can tamper with anyone else’s data.
That data includes litter information and individual pig records. Lucas says to be able to use the online litter registration, breeders must enter the herdmark received after becoming a member, an assigned owner number, and a user name and password selected by the user and set up by NSR. A graphic representing the four NSR swine breeds then comes up on the monitor, and the user must point and click on the desired breed. A new screen comes up with a general data page to be filled out. Basic information requested for the registration is litter number, ear notch and registration number for both sire and dam, name and notch numbers for individual pigs, and number of pigs born and born alive. Sow productivity information is optional. Anything designated with a red asterisk is required information.
Once the data are entered, Lucas says, users are required to acknowledge with a mouse click that the information is true to the best of their knowledge. They may click on a “continue” button to register another litter or a “logout” button to indicate they’re finished and the information can be automatically sent to NSR.
At NSR, Lucas checks for registrations daily and sends a registration number by return e-mail. Or, if there’s a mistake, she’ll send an error message with an explanation. For example, she says, if the sire’s registration number is typed incorrectly, it may appear that the person trying to register the litter doesn’t own the sire. After Lucas has e-mailed the registration number to the breeder, she also mails paperwork the old-fashioned way.
Production assistant Ruth Ann Reiman does online litter registration for Zierke, a swine genetics company in Morris, Minn. Zierke works with all four NSR breeds, and Reiman registers each breed’s litters once a month.
“It’s the new wave of the future,” she says. “It’s so much easier. There’s no turnaround time, and there’s a cost saving with postage and fax costs.”
She particularly likes the online procedure because she can upload the pig and litter data from the computer system, have it ready to send to NSR within a few minutes, and know by the next morning if it was successful or if there were errors.
“If you’re on a timeline, you can upload it and it’s there,” Reiman says. “The only disadvantage is that the registration numbers don’t download yet – they have to be put in by hand – but we’re working on it with NSR.”
Lucas explains that breeders who use Herdsman, a home computer farrowing program, have the ability to download their data directly from that program to NSR. They simply plug in their password, then point and click on the Herdsman icon and go from there.
Purchasing an AI certificate online is equally as painless as registering a litter online. However, there are a couple of prerequisites. Boars are required to be DNA blood banked and stress tested. Hampshires, Yorkshires and Landrace must be test mated, as well. Beyond that, an account number, specified by NSR, a user name and password are necessary to start, Lucas said.
To purchase a certificate, members must select the desired breed using a drop-down menu. Then they must enter the boar’s registration number, semen ID, semen ship date, semen purchase herd mark, and purchase quantity. When they click the “purchase” button, they’ll see the certificate number and the charge. Most members generally charge certificate purchases to their NSR account, Lucas says.
Besides purchasing a certificate online, Lucas says, members may also void a certificate online and view reports. A report, she says, shows the certificate number, breed, boar registration number, semen ship date, purchase herd mark, date issued, date voided, date used, and status.
According to Russ Snyder, assistant manager of domestic sales for Swine Genetics in Cambridge, Iowa, online AI certificates are handy and a cost savings for them. He says that’s because they don’t have to keep certificates on hand since they can get them quickly via the online service. He also likes being able to view a report to see when a certificate was used and the history of it. The only disadvantage Snyder cites is that the online certificates don’t identify sows like the old paper certificates did.
But that situation may be remedied in the not-so-distant future. In keeping with their efforts to help members do business more efficiently, Lucas says NSR is looking at making five-generation pedigrees available for viewing online
