Description
Several segments in the beef industry throughout the world are in transition to managing and marketing cattle individually in feedlots to reduce excess fat produced, increase consistency and quality of products, enhance productivity, and increase economic returns. Therefore, individual cattle management s+ystems are being developed to facilitate marketing individual animals at their optimum economical endpoint, considering live and carcass incremental cost of gain and carcass prices for various grades, and avoiding discounts.
The Cornell/Cattle Value Discovery System model represents an evolution of a growth model first published by Fox and Black (1984) to account for differences in breed type and mature size in predicting performance and profitability of feedlot cattle with alternative management systems. Modifications over the past 25 years have been made to improve its accuracy to account for more of the variation in nutrient requirements and performance of growing beef cattle (Fox et al., 1988; Fox et al., 1992; Tylutki et al., 1994; Fox and Tylutki, 1998). The model as described by Fox et al. (2000) was adapted by the National Research Council for beef (NRC, 1996, 2000) and dairy cattle (NRC, 2001). The model as described by Fox et al. (2004) for growing and lactating beef cattle was used to develop a continuous model to predict responses of dual purpose cattle over the reproductive cycle (Reynoso-Campos et al., 2004).
The CVDS was developed for use in individual cattle management for growing beef cattle. The CVDS provides (1) prediction of daily gain, incremental cost of gain and days to finish to optimize profits and marketing decisions while marketing within the window of acceptable carcass weights and composition, (2) predictions of carcass composition during growth to avoid discounts for under or over weight carcasses and excess backfat, and (3) allocation of feed fed to pens to individual animals for the purpose of sorting of individuals into pens by days to reach target body composition and maximum individual profitability. This allows mixed ownership of individuals in pens, determination of individual animal cost of gain for the purposes of billing feed and predicting incremental cost of gain, and providing information that can be used to select for feed efficiency and profitability.
Download
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Visual Basic 6 (SP6) |
32 bit and 64 bit Compatible |
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The CVDS is programmed in Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 and it works with most IBM-PC compatible computers that have Microsoft Windows XP or later. A computer with the following configuration is suggested for satisfactory performance: 2 GHz Intel Core Due (or similar) with at least 2 Gb of RAM. A CD/DVD-ROM for installation from CD media, an IBM-PC compatible printer to print reports, and an internet connection for updating and registration. For the Import/Export functionality from/to spreadsheet, Microsoft Excel™ (or compatible spreadsheet software) is required. For advanced database manipulation, Microsoft Access™ (or compatible database software) is recommended. |
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The current version of the Cattle Value Discovery System is Loading...
Note that upgrading to this version may require uninstalling an earlier version.
Previous versions can be downloaded from here.
Registration
The CVDS will expires after 10 trial uses if it is not registered by the end of the grace period. You may register your copy by submitting the license number on the Register webpage. If applicable, registration codes are issued only after the full registration fee has been paid on the Purchase webpage.
Developers
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Dr. Luis O. Tedeschi
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Dr. Danny G. Fox
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Dr. Michael J. Baker
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Support
The following list summarizes corrections, enhancements, and functional improvements made to the software, presented in chronological order (newest to oldest). Each entry reflects updates implemented to improve stability, usability, and overall performance.
There are no corrections, enhancements, or functional improvements to report at this time. However, several related documents, manuscripts, and reports are listed on the Publications web page.
Links
- The user's guide is a PDF file that contains all the screens of the CVDS model and detailed explanation on how to use the model.
- The CVDS manual is a PDF file that contains a description of the model, tutorial, and the equations used to develop the model.
Beef Cattle Management
Residual Feed Intake