iTexel developments continue

developments continue apace

Using feedback from members, the Society continues to develop the functionality available to all members through iTexel, to improve the user experience and make flock viewing and management simpler.

Over the winter there have been several improvements to the site that directly benefit members and enable Society staff to better support them.

The Flock List report has been improved so that sire and dam details for animals are now presented along with birth and registration details for all animals in your flock, explains Ed Smith, Society data and technical services manager.

“The Flock Admin page has been improved so that animal information pages can be directly accessed through hyperlinks from the animal list.

“Clicking on an animal’s flock book number in Flock Admin will now open a new page with the animal’s iTexel information page showing pedigree and registration details with links to owner / breeder information and breeding values where available,” says Dr Smith.

“The Flock Admin page has also been further improved by the addition of an email function, located next to the save button. Now any changes made by members in Flock Admin are stored by the database and a summary can be requested by clicking on the envelope icon. This will email the flock’s registered email address with all changes made since the last email was sent.”

The Society has also marked any unproductive animals as dead in the database, this has the effect of removing them from active flock lists and makes managing your flock online simpler, says Dr Smith.

“Any ewe that has not had a lamb recorded against it for three years and sires over four years old have been marked as dead. This resulted in more than 75,000 animals being updated to benefit members’ online experiences.

“Brexit has also resulted in some changes to the certification rules for overseas members as the Society are now not able to produce Zootechnical certificates for animals that are not in UK flocks. The certification functionality of iTexel has been updated to ensure the Society do not breach these new regulations.”

The Society has also contracted its software developers, Rezare Systems, to develop more online tools for members over the coming months, with the aim of maximising the impact of the available budget.

“Initial developments will include adding more information to ewe cards on the Record Lambs screen post lambing, to make it clear to members the IDs of lambs that have been added to each ewe. This should help members check that they have added animals correctly.

iTexel users can now send themselves a confirmation email of changes made when using the Flock Admin page of iTexel

Clicking an animal within the Flock Admin page now opens the animal’s details on a separate screen, including registration and pedigree details

“The Flock Admin screen will be improved further with the addition of filters to enable members to view different sections of their flock more easily. Proposed filters include sex, registration status, year of birth and combinations thereof,” he explains

The Society will also develop a new inbreeding calculator function within iTexel that will allow all members to predict the inbreeding coefficient (F value) of lambs born from the mating of any sire with any ewe in the member’s flock. This function will work on all of the latest devices and help all members to make more informed purchasing and breeding decisions. In conjunction with this the Society also plan to make the F figure more visible on screens throughout iTexel.

“A new development will also allow members to transfer purchased fully registered male and female animals into their own flocks without the need to contact the Society office or provide a proof of purchase,” says Dr Smith.

“This function will be initiated by the purchaser requesting transfer of animals and may require confirmation from the vendor to complete the transfer. The Society will still need to be involved in the registration (and transfer) of birth notified male animals due to the requirement of a DNA sample as part of the male registration process.”

Other proposed developments include enabling members to request email confirmation of their entries into a particular sale; and giving members the ability to edit the sex of any unregistered animals in their flocks, he adds.

texelplus ram lambs averaged 36% more than

non-recorded lambs at 2020 English National Sale

texelplus ram lambs achieved 8% higher

clearance rate at 2020 Welsh National Sale

34%

of all texel lambs born in 2020 were

sired by texelplus rams

2020-born texelplus lambs are 4.5kg heavier

at 20 weeks than texelplus lambs in 2011

2020-born texelplus lambs had 0.25mm more

loin muscle than texelplus lambs born in 2011

Getting involved with texelplus is as easy as 1, 2, 3

1Record birth weight and lambing ease along with pedigree data at lambing 2 Record lamb weights at eight weeks of age 3 Ultrasound scan lambs at 35-40kg