General Description
This is the General Description & Screen Layout of MISTRO Farm
The following screen appears when you run MISTRO Farm.
The main form of MISTRO Farm.
You access different areas of the program by clicking a menu button. To click a menu button, move the mouse so the pointer is over the picture, and click the left mouse button.
There are four groups of menu buttons and these are arranged in four different sections. You open these sections by clicking on the appropriate section title (see the figure). The four sections are entitled Views, Actions, Data Xfer (for data transfer), and Utilities. The operation of each section will be discussed in detail in the following sections.
The menu bar at the top of the screen is provided to assist existing DOS users. This menu is similar to the menu used in the DOS program and will take you to the appropriate section of the program. You open a menu and make a selection by clicking the left mouse button on the desired entry.
When you select the part of the program you require, the desktop area will be filled by another form that displays information or accepts data input.
3.1 Views.
MISTRO provides seven special views for accessing your information and entering data. These are shown on the menu buttons in figure three. They include:
Farm view – Information relating to your farm land including fertiliser, grazing, irrigation and paddock treatments.
Herd view – Information relating to your herd of cows including average herd test statistics, and lists of lactations, calvings, and test results from the data for the whole herd.
Females view – Information relevant to individual cows. When you want to enter or view information about cows, heifers, or calves, you will use this view.
Bulls view – Information about bulls registered with your herd test centre and the bull team you wish to use on your farm during the mating season.
Feed view – Information on the types of feed used on your farm and the amount of feed used for different purposes at different times.
Diary view – Keep notes on a daily basis just like a written diary, to record daily and ten daily milk production, feed inputs, grazing management, and rainfall.
Events view – Information on the types of disease or health events that you wish to record and the events affecting different groups of animals.
3.2 Actions
The second section title provides quick access to different parts of the program.
The Actions section provides buttons that take you directly to cow user lists, graphs of production, the section on matings to avoid, rainfall details, bull user lists (SireSort) and test day statistics. These screens can also be viewed by selecting the required tab on the appropriate view. For example, inbreeding can be accessed by clicking the Information/Inbreeding tabs on the Females view.
3.3 Data Transfer (Xfer)
The data transfer section provides five menu buttons that enable exchange of data between your computer and your herd test centre. The functions are as follows:
Export to centre – creates a file with all information that you have added to your system for delivery to your herd test centre prior to herd testing.
Import from centre – imports a file provided by your herd test centre that contains the latest test results for your cows.
Clear HR files – clears your files so that they match with your herd test centre’s. This option should only be used under direction of your herd test centre.
Import Drug file – imports a Mistro file containing registered drugs for the treatment of cattle.
Import DIF 105 – imports a file obtained from ADHIS with all the details of new young bulls.
Import DOS files – imports data from an existing MISTRO Farm for DOS installation.
3.4 Utilities.
Setup – The setup button allows you to specify a number of variables that control the operation of the program. The most important of these identifies your herd’s ID (this enables the program to locate this herd as the preferred option without you having to continually enter it), and its preferred dry period.
Backup/Restore – This option is used to backup your data to floppy discs or to restore your data from a previous backup.
Rebuild – This options rebuilds the indexes for your system and maintains your database in top order.
Update database structure – This option is used under direction from your supplier to keep your database up to date when changes are made to the program or the data files kept at your herd recording centre.
Update – MISTRO calculates many statistics within the program. For example, the PI for cows, the date on which a cow is due to calve, and appropriate milk and meat withholding periods. These need to be recalculated at regular intervals after you have entered new information. This button will allow you to update the various statistics within the program.
3.5 Using “View” Windows.
The Farm View
View windows have a similar layout. At the left of the view there is usually a section which is used to identify the current record. The current record is the one you wish to view information for.
In the previous figure, there are two “grids” at the left of the view. One grid displays the different farms that are available on the system (“Farm grid”) and the other displays the paddocks located on the current farm (“Paddock grid”).
A grid is a list showing information about different records. You can select a record by clicking on the record in the grid. In the previous figure, the farm property identified by the number 703243 is highlighted as the current record.
The paddock grid displays the paddocks on farm 703243. When selecting a current paddock, you can move the highlighted bar in the grid by clicking another record. If more records are available than fit in the grid, you can change the position in the list by clicking on the scroll bar. Clicking the up arrow at the top of the scroll bar will move up one record. Clicking the down arrow at the bottom of the scroll bar will move the list down one record. Clicking below the slide bar indicator (the square block) will move down a page of records and vice versa.
You can also “drag” the scroll bar indicator by locating the mouse over the block, and holding down the left mouse button while you “drag” the indicator up or down. Dragging the indicator to the bottom will move you to the bottom of the list. Dragging to the top will move you to the top of the list.
The right hand side of the view provides a section where data can be viewed and entered. Different types of data related to the particular topic can be selected using the “View tabs” at the top of the view. For example, in the “Farm view” you can view and enter information about the farm, paddocks, irrigations, grazings and fertiliser applications by clicking on the required “View tab”.
