Dairy Ration Software and Data Itegration

Many of the features of Formulate2 dairy ration software work together to produce extended utility beyond what they provide separately. Data integration is one of those very useful results of our software design priorities.

Because its data is stored in a relational database environment, it is possible for Formulate2 to have access to that data on demand in order to accommodate the requirements of any active process. Ration software with on demand data access offers significantly exended funtionality when compared with software that segregates its data in distinct unrelated blocks.

On demand data access has been utilized to produce a high degree of interactivity between feed table records and ration table records. This interactivity produces many important benefits for users.

The simplest way to illustrate these benefits is to briefly review two very import functions they facilitate.

Custom Feed Libraries

Formulate2 allows you to create an individual, custom feed library for each producer. In fact, we recommend that you do so. Custom feed libraries allow you to individualize library content to meet the specific needs of a given producer's rations and at the same time maintain optimal program performance by using a series of small tables rather than one very large table.

Small tables allow Formulate2 to execute very quickly - translated into practical terms, that means you don't have to wait on the software to access a huge table to retrieve what it needs. Instead it accesses very small tables that contain just what the producer requires.

The use of custom libraries is facilitated by the employment of two protocols that are a direct product of Formulate2's relational database structure.

First, because any ration record can be linked to any feed library, feed library linking provides, among several other benefits, the means of actually implementing custom feed libraries.

Second, without the ability to create import source and export target associations between two libraries, it would not be possible to populate a new library with feed records except by manually entering the required feed items.

Importing Feeds to Ration Records

When you start Formulate2 and arrive at the ration record form you will find it contains only the information provided by the master nutrient list. If you click on the Feed Constraints tab of the form you will find lots of white space and no feeds.

In order to get feed items into the ration record you must first link it to an existing feed library and of course the linked library must contain feeds. Linking a feed library to a ration record is as simple as clicking on the Feed Library field of the ration record form and selecting what you want from a drop down list of available libraries.

From that time forth, any process exectued by the program requiring feed information for that ration will be directed to the linked feed library.

The first benefit of feed library linking you experience is when you click on the Files menu of the ration record form and select and click on the Linked Library menu option. The result of doing so is that Formulate2 opens the linked library and displays the feed record form.

You can locate the feeds you wish to use in the ration and import them into the ration record

The capability to import feed items to ration records is another benefit of Formulate2's relational database environment. And as with other features it too combines synergistically with its fellow features to create the overall functionality afforded by the program.