Posted: 26 June 2025

Preparing your computer system in advance of lambing season.

With lambing season around the corner for most flock owners, it’s time to check out your computer system and EID reading equipment so that it’s ready for use when lambing starts.

EID reader: you need to check that:

1. The reader is charging and maintaining charge. There are always users who lose the charger and just as lambing starts, there’s a panic on to find or get a new charger! The Agrident AWR300 reader has its own 12V charger. It won’t charge via usb connection.  All the other Agrident readers will charge using any usb charger. If you’ve mislaid the charger for the AWR300, please get in touch, TGM has plenty in stock.
2. If you’re still using an older Psion reader, check that it is synchronising.  Now might be a good time to consider upgrading to one of the new Agrident readers.
3. Once charged, check the date and time in the reader.  If a reader battery goes 100% flat, many readers revert to the year 2010.  If you don’t check the date and time before you start recording, the first batch of birth records may end up with a 2010 year in the lambing date.
4. If using Select Sheepware, or AgriDataTransfer, check that the reader is synchronising with your computer.  Connect it via USB and choose sync device.  If there are any errors then these must be attended to and resolved. The most common problem after a reader has sat around for a while is that the terminals on the bottom of the reader become tarnished.  The best way to clean these is to use a medical alcohol wipe, these are available in first aid kits.  If you can’t get the reader and computer to communicate please get in touch with TGM as soon as possible to get the problem solved.

Software:

If using Select Sheepware, or AgriDataTransfer, you may want to check that you have the tupping sires in the Sire groups list. In Select Sheepware, if you have already recorded tupping information, then the tup linked to the sire group will automatically become the father of lambs where he was the tup used.  If you haven’t recorded tupping information, then you need to have the tupping groups set up so that they’re displayed on the reader when you’re recording a lambing event, if you want to select the sire at that stage.
The same applies to Select Sheepware phone app. You want to make sure that the tupping groups have transferred to the app, if you want to link lambs to their fathers when recording the birth.

It’s useful at this time of year to tidy your Select Sheepware database up and remove animals which are no longer on the farm.  There’s an easy way to do that – add the Status Days column to the home page of Select Sheepware and sort by status days.  Animals with status days > 500 are most likely gone from the flock. – If a ewe hasn’t had any fertility event recorded in the last 500 days, then it is most likely gone. There’s a quick way to remove all these animals. If you’re not sure how, get in touch with TGM for assistance.
If you have tupping records recorded in another system such as Sheep Ireland, Signet or SIL, now is the time to import those details so that the lambs will inherit the correct sire when their birth is recorded.  Get in touch with TGM if you need help with this.
Check that your version of Select Sheepware is up to date. If prompted on opening the software that a new version is available, go ahead and click to download and install.  If you’re using the app, then you need to be on the most up to date version of both app and Select Sheepware on computer.

Please get in touch with TGM at info@tgmsoftware.com or T: 028 9268 9681 for any help.