$uplementa Certo

Assessment of cost / benefit of supplementation on dry for cattle ranching.

The $ uplementa One is an application for evaluation of cost / benefit of supplementation in the dry season and is the result of partnership Embrapa Cattle Court and the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul - UFMS.

It is the first mobile application Embrapa to help the farmer in decision making nutrition of beef cattle.

This tool allows the small, medium and large chain producer of beef compare the income of the same type of product supplementation of different brands. It also allows to make a comparison with two distinct types of supplementation: Supplementation with protein salt and semi-confinement. All this from the convenience of a smartphone or tablet that has Android operating system. No need for internet connection to use it.

It was developed to be an intuitive and requiring the fewest possible information. Thus, quickly, it is possible to compare both products within one among the two strategies, protein supplementation and semi-confinement, or to directly compare a strategy against each other.

Once inserted the information about the products and about the consignment of animals to be supplemented, it is requested that generates the desired comparison, among others, the following data:

- Margin of supplementation, which corresponds to the difference between the revenue and the cost of the strategy and / or analyte;

- Point of balance to weight gain, ie gain whose value equals the cost of supplementation, the net result being equal to zero, and

- Return in Reais for each dollar invested.

With this information, the producer can make the choice that suits you best: choose the largest margin, the highest return for every dollar invested or opt for supplementation lower breakeven point. Whatever the choice, the tool helps the producer to make a more secure, allowing to obtain better results.

In addition to the input data were simple, the application presents suggested values ​​to typed data or warnings that are in disagreement with the results of research on supplementation in drought. For example, in the case that the value reported weight gain with protein supplementation is above 400 grams / head / day, since that is the amount recognized as much with this type of supplement in drought, the user, before proceeding receives a message stating that the gain is higher than it would be logical to expect. The same occurs if the user in the case of semi-confinement, place a value greater than 1.000 grams / head / day. No warning, too, in case the user is doing the evaluation out of the dry season. There are however unable to continue the comparisons, if the user so wishes, based on their own perception of reality.

Extremely important information for successful practice of supplementing the app also tells you is the minimum number of troughs should be available to the lot to be supplemented. The amount varies depending on the strategy (or semi-confinement + protein), the size of the animals and the number of animals in the batch. This is a major reason for suboptimal result of supplementation and therefore information that increases the chance of obtaining the potential of the technique in the field.

The application was developed by the Laboratory for Precision Livestock, Environment and Software Engineering (PLEASE Lab) Embrapa Beef Cattle in partnership with the School of Computing (FACOM), Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS) and is part of the ongoing effort Embrapa in providing technology solutions for the supply chain of beef.