Most farms are not short on data. They are short on recorded, usable data.
Some have spreadsheets, some use software, some have their treatment sheets printed. But unless the numbers are prioritized, cleaned up and reviewed, they rarely change management decisions.
As Bethany Dado-Senn, calf and heifer technical specialist with Vita Plus, puts it: “The cows don’t lie. They’re trying to tell us all the time what is going on. But if we don’t have any way to measure their outputs and the results, then we can’t do anything about it.”
The real challenge is not collecting everything, but collecting what matters and building a system veterinarians and producers can sustain together.
A practical framework helps: prioritize, essentialize and systemize.
1. Prioritize: Decide What Actually Matters
Before adding another metric or installing another program, start with focus.
“We need to start small. We need to identify what our top priority is to start,” says Kelly Sporer, farm data consultant with Cornerstone Ag Management. “We can’t look at everything and say ‘We’re just going to start, we’re going to dive in, we’re going to do it all.’”
Trying to track everything almost guarantees that nothing will be done well.
Instead, identify the two or three numbers that will move the herd forward right now. Those priorities will differ by farm.
“Everything that we do, we have to think about that customer, that relationship or that client, and what they’re trying to do and where they are now,” Dado-Senn says.
For example, a veterinarian might help a producer prioritize:
- Fresh cow losses
- Calf morbidity trends
- Pregnancy rate
- Early-lactation culling
The goal is focus, not complexity. Once priorities are clear, progress becomes measurable.
2. Essentialize: Remove What Gets in the Way
“A lot of the dairies we work with are not collecting completely comprehensive data,” Sporer says.
Even when farms try to track data, the system often breaks down. When records are entered inconsistently, the story they tell can be misleading.
Dado-Senn recalls once reviewing records that appeared to show catastrophic losses: “I’ll look back and it’ll look like we had a mass die-off one month, but it was really just the one month they finally cleaned their records up.”
Incomplete data makes analysis nearly impossible.
“If we have incomplete and inaccurate data, I can do a whole lot for you as far as data analysis, but we can’t do very much in ways of recommendations or changing anything in management,” Dado-Senn says.
And if the data is never reviewed with the intention of making changes, motivation disappears.
“If nobody is looking at it, that data is completely useless to the farm that’s spending valuable time collecting it,” Sporer says.
Essentializing can help with this by removing friction.
That might involve:
- Standardizing health event terms
- Assigning one person responsible for data entry
- Recording events the day they happen
- Simplifying treatment sheets
- Reviewing numbers regularly with the herd team
The veterinarian plays an important role here, helping define case definitions, treatment thresholds and consistent terminology so the records reflect real clinical events.
3. Systemize: Move From Good to Better to Best
Record keeping does not need to be perfect. The key is building a system that improves over time.
“This is not about being super robust. It’s about starting somewhere,” Sporer reminds.
GOOD — The basics are written down
- Deaths recorded somewhere
- Pregnancy checks entered
- Treatments written down
BETTER — Records become organized
- Health events recorded consistently
- Reasons for death or culling included
- Data entered into herd software
BEST — Data drives decisions
- Trends reviewed by age or stage of lactation
- Protocol changes evaluated before and after
- Health and reproduction trends analyzed over time
The goal is simple: When management changes, records help answer one question: Did it work?
That is when records stop being paperwork and start becoming management tools.
Importantly, not every farm needs to operate at “best” immediately. Progress from inconsistent notes to reliable digital entry is already a major improvement.
5 Record-Keeping Mistakes That Make Data Useless
Collecting data takes time. But when records are incomplete or inconsistent, the information becomes nearly impossible to use.
- Recording data months later
Events should be recorded as close to real time as possible. - Using vague or inconsistent health terms
Different staff describing the same condition differently makes data nearly impossible to analyze. - Collecting data no one reviews
Review meetings reinforce why records matter. - Incomplete herd inventory
Animals still listed in the system long after leaving the herd distort nearly every performance report. - Trying to track everything at once
Strong record systems develop step by step.
Partnership Turns Numbers Into Action
Record keeping works best when it is collaborative.
“When everybody is working toward the same goal, which is the success of the farm, there’s no room for pointing fingers,” Dado-Senn says.
The veterinarian–producer partnership is central to building that culture.
Veterinarians translate trends into management insights. Producers provide the operational context that explains what is happening in the barn.
Together they decide what to track, how to track it and when to review it.
Without that collaboration, records sit unused. With it, they guide decisions from calf to cow.
When farms prioritize what matters, remove unnecessary barriers and build simple systems together, record keeping moves from good to better to best. That’s when the numbers start working for the herd.
