Keeping records is a fundamental part of ranch management that often gets relegated to a dingy notebook or a shoebox of receipts. However, successful ranch managers know that in order to cut costs, save money and take the best care of animals, crops and equipment, meticulous record-keeping is key. As has been said before, "You can't manage what you don't know."

Many spring-calving cows and calves will go through the working facilities this time of year for annual pregnancy checks and weaning vaccinations, so fall provides a good opportunity to compile data and evaluate how the production cycle went.

“Big data” is completely transforming the way we do business and is influencing most other parts of our lives. Almost everything we do is leaving a digital trace (or data), which can be used and analyzed at different levels. The application of this big data has led to “digital disruption,” a fundamental shift for dairy businesses and our overall lives.

Dairy herd management is very data-driven, with exceptional progress made in the use of data from areas such as feeding, parlor operation, milk production and herd health to make timely decisions influencing dairy profitability.