Livestock Wala'au

MINI-Ep. 2 : Recording Keeping Part 1 and UH Fall Covid-19 Updates

• Melelani Oshiro & Shannon Sand • Season 1 • Episode 2

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Aloha! The MINI-Livestock Wala'au episodes aim to share updates to current CTAHR programs and other county programs related to Livestock in Hawai'i. In addition to our update, over the next few mini-episode we will be talking about recoding keeping for you farm or ranch. 

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https://cms.ctahr.hawaii.edu/forestry/Forestry-Agroforestry-Trees/Leucaena-leucocephala

Shannon Sand:

Today's episode is brought to you by the University of Hawaii College of Tropical ag and human resources and the livestock extension group.

Melelani Oshiro:

Aloha welcome, everyone to the livestock Walaʻau podcast aimed to provide educational support, information, guidance and outreach to our livestock stakeholders in Hawaii. We are your hosts Me

Shannon Sand:

Oshiro and Shannon Zahn.

Melelani Oshiro:

So, today we're going to discuss why we should keep records, livestock records, that is not like music records, livestock records, it does sound like Yeah. And also give you some updates, of UHF and some of the COVID-19 plans for the fall.

Shannon Sand:

And then our guests for August. We're going to talk a little bit about them. But yeah, mostly about record keeping exciting stuff, because it's important, but I'm also biased. So yeah. Let's What do you say we talk about updates on new H COVID-19. Plan? Yes. I think it's obvious. You know, that numbers have gone up. And because we're in separate rooms in separate locations. Right,

Melelani Oshiro:

huh. Yeah, the things have just changed a little bit numbers have gone up for the past couple of weeks now.

Shannon Sand:

And of exploding, it sounds like Yeah.

Melelani Oshiro:

So I think in our last update, we shared that we would be returning to campus all employees on August 3, and not be teleworking, however, that has changed and that yeah, rescind that order has been rescinded. So we will still be teleworking option will remain in place for majority of the employees of this operation they're needed for operational uses are things in the office. So our clerks, I believe some of the offices will still be open. But as we said before, if you're coming in and you have a question or whatnot, always call ahead. Because

Shannon Sand:

I think it's now because like I said, things have changed, obviously, since we last spoke, so yeah, you know,

Melelani Oshiro:

yeah. So we want to just take this short podcast or little mini podcasts that we do, to take time to sit down and talk a little bit about why we keep records. Yeah. And I think there's a lot of reasons why we keep records of our livestock, Shannon,

Shannon Sand:

taxes, insurance, knowing how your animals are grading historically, there's lots and lots of things. So when we say records, I generally because my background is Ag Economics, business management marketing, well, it sounds a lot longer than it should but it is my focus generally is a lot of times related to like the finance side. So taxes, insurance, but it's also important, because I come from a farm and ranch family. And while my dad is not a record keeper, per se, he does have the little pocket little notebook that he keeps in his like breast pocket. And my dad, he has kept records for years and my mom bless her because she's an amazing mom has turned those into like electronics. So we actually, like my mom has, like they have records dating back, like I think four or five decades now. So quite a while and I mean, it's just really handy to have because my my dad, while he doesn't care, well, he does care about the finances, because he wants to make sure they're not going broke. But for him, it's always he loves the grading and to know what it is. So like they have like, I think three decades maybe for now worth of like grading records in terms of how the animal graded out and stuff. And so, that's been very helpful in terms of like, looking at your breeding program and what you want to bring it to and how's that very important? Yeah,

Melelani Oshiro:

they're very important. And I don't think you know, if you don't know what you're producing, you don't know how well you're you are managing those animals. So that's extremely important. And, and, you know, records don't have to be fancy like Shannon said, it can be a little notebook, you stick in your pocket, it can be everybody has a smartphone nowadays entered into your notes, you know, simple thing with dates. And in my aspect of looking at, you know, records too, it's, it's a health thing, right? So if you have an outbreak on your farm, you know, how many animals you have, you know, when the last entry was, or

Shannon Sand:

when you last paid it? Exactly, you know, all those little details and having it not just keeping the records, but keeping knowing where you put them. And you know, if there's multiple people that are on there, you know, having a clipboard as you enter into a barn or into your workspace or whatnot, having a shared note. So like, yeah, my siblings and I like when we make purchases and stuff. So we actually have everybody has an iPhone, so but if you don't have like an iPhone, because iPhones, you can do shared notes. So that's what I do with my siblings and my friends and stuff for different things. But then also, the beautiful thing is is like if you have again a smartphone like Google Docs So you can have a shared Google Sheet. And I use that a lot to keep track of finance stuff. And yeah, I mean, there's just all kinds of apps out there, there are specific apps related to like record keeping for, like, AG. And so I was like, there's, there's just so many things out there.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, yeah, there's lots of different options. There's lots of different programs, but basically, you know, a pen and paper, or pencil and paper is just as good. You know, yeah, it'll just, you know, it'll just help, it'll help in your, in your daily, you know, your old management of your animals, like Shannon was saying, the grading is very important. And if you can't get in there to actually grade your animal, just do a simple body condition of your animal, you know, looking at, you know, keeping their age, that record of their body condition. And when they went to slaughter and whatnot, you know, that that also is an important thing. And just, you know, understand that, so keep records.

Shannon Sand:

Yeah, I mean, I, like I said, I generally take things more from a finance side. So like, I think it's important because I was like, a lot of times, it's a smaller business, but you still want to know that you're at least breaking even because that's exactly. I mean, a lot of folks have, a lot of people have off farm jobs. But again, like it, it's, it's an enjoyable thing, and you love doing it, but you still want to ideally be breaking even and stuff or you know, keeping track of it, because you know, you're gonna be thinking the ship too much. You need to keep the lights on and all that stuff. But yeah, I would also say like, if you're a smaller farm, if you can separate out the expenses from the house, that's great. But sometimes that's not possible, because you have the same electricity running the barn, let's say or shed, or like the water pump, that you do run in your house, because my parents again, I'm just gonna pull from my personal experience and stuff I was like, it's all on the same power line. So it all goes to the same box. So it's very difficult. So it all goes into like, one column, basically, if that makes sense. So, and then we have ways that we attempt to separate it out later. But yeah, I mean, just, I think record keeping is so important, especially right now with everything, because prices are changing. You know, like, there's droughts going on, depending on which Island or county you're on, at the time this is being recorded. And so I mean, there's just, there's lots going on right now, I feel like,

Melelani Oshiro:

yeah, yeah. So they can be, you know, very useful. Yeah. For you to plan ahead for the markets that you're in. If you know, if you're if you're a farmer, rancher is your sole entity, and that is your that is your only source of income, then extremely export important to keep records and you probably already do. So. But for those other folks that are just, you know, doing smaller, smaller, lots of stuff or livestock, you know, on the side, it's still important. And I think for my aspect of health stuff, that's really, because from a bio point, yeah. And, you know, if you get something that goes through, you know, when it happens, and what are the animals came from, or all those kinds of stuff, those things are very important, you know, yeah, so,

Shannon Sand:

or if there's like a, God forbid, like some sort of weather event or eruption as like, you need the records in order to collect any sort of like insurance or government payouts, you got to have them because otherwise they don't know what you did. Even if it's again, like just keep the little like, you know, notebook in your pocket. I was like, my dad's almost 80. So that's his preference. And that works out really good. So I, I definitely, yeah, pro record keeping.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And, you know, like, you can have, you can have the financial workers, you can have the health records of your animals, you can have their, you know, their grading records, grazing management records, those are all things that are important, you know, and it does, it does turn around and impact you, if you do go for other kinds of grants, or if you're looking for loans and whatnot, you know, some of those are gonna require for you to show what you've been doing, are the numbers you have on there and kind of make those numbers drive with each other, you know, because that's, that's going to be a requirement as some of the grants if you do apply for them, so that's another good reason to keep that you know, and

Shannon Sand:

keep that like I said, like, my dad always does that, like just keeps it in his pocket. And then he writes it down immediately. And then my mom enters it into the Excel sheet because my dad, I think he could turn a computer on but I can't guarantee much. I love my dad, but I was like, you know, like, that's the so we've been lucky that my mom is really good with computers. And so she's the one that's done a lot of that for years and years and years, but and if you don't want to do it, there's all kinds of software there's apps out there now. So it's like there's lots of stuff and we're gonna this is gonna be basically like a mini series within our like mini episodes. So we hopefully don't bore you too much. And we keep it kind of short. But, you know, we're going to talk about some potential different apps that you could use for some of these different things. And mele is going to talk about record keeping for things like the QA. So hopefully, it'll be interesting for y'all. And, you know, we'll get some good ideas, hopefully some feedback from everybody and kind of your, your thoughts and then yeah, but I think I just think that record serves such a purpose. And the problem is, is a lot of people also keep records in their head. And if you don't write it down. I don't know about y'all, but I don't remember what I ate breakfast a week ago. I can't remember what I ate for breakfast

Melelani Oshiro:

today.

Shannon Sand:

Did you? Did you? Did you at least?

Melelani Oshiro:

That might be the problem.

Shannon Sand:

Yeah, so I'm very excited about this. And Millie. And I kind of had a talk about like doing this as a mini series and doing some miniseries in our little updates, as we call them, or are many episodes. So yeah, but hopefully y'all will enjoy this. And we're kind of excited about it, I think.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, yeah. So just a way for us to share some of the resources out there to make record keeping a little less daunting and a little bit easier. And, you know, with all the like, yeah, Tronic devices that we have nowadays. Yeah, you know, some of it can be more convenient, and some not. So like I said, paper and pencil always does the job. But you know, there's other, we'd like to share some of the other things that are out there. So we're

Shannon Sand:

a calendar, because I know like, I know, people that like have like physical calendars on the fridge. Yeah. And like when a calf is born, like they'll just go right to eat and which cow it's out of, and the sire and stuff. So I was like, I mean, there's so many ways to do it. We're just going to talk about some of those and, you know, the uses, and I think, especially in our age of like, our digital age and record keeping now just to really apply for any grants to get any loans to get any sort of like, like if there's again, any sort of disaster like you have to have records. I think that's something that we've seen this last year, because there were different payment options and stuff for ag but it was like if you don't have those records, it's not Yeah, a lot. So yeah, the you need to know your inventory,

Melelani Oshiro:

you know, and on some of those larger herds and whatnot, it might not be so easy. So,

Shannon Sand:

yeah, yeah, so mele looked up all the exciting National Livestock days in August, and she found some really good ones. I'm very excited. I'm not even gonna lie. So mele, what are they?

Melelani Oshiro:

Well, August 30, is National filet mignon day. So we all can go out and have one of those August 13, more every day, if you'd like to. And conveniently, August 21, is our world honeybee day. And so with that, I want to introduce our next podcast this month, where we will be talking with our pollinator ecologist from the University of Hawaii, Dr. Kristina boldgrid. Our Chrissy, as we call her, she will be talking a lot about the effects of Nutrition and Dietary diversity with our health of our honeybees, which is a, you know, emerging field for them in pollinator ecology, worlds, I should say. But she'll be sharing a lot about building your apiary here in Hawaii, and things that you need to be aware of, if you want to if you're getting started or if you're already have your colony started here. So

Shannon Sand:

great conversation, I learned so much. It was so exhausting for me. But also I love honey. So I feel like Yeah,

Melelani Oshiro:

well it is interesting to just hear about a little bit of the history of bees in the colonies and apiary in Hawaii, you know in the state and how that started so and you know how they are considered livestock. So they are in that realm now and how much they do already and have been for a long time contributing to our livestock. So anyway, to look forward. Yeah, look forward for that our next podcast that will come out shortly after this update that we're doing today.

Shannon Sand:

Thank you for that mele so make sure to join our Facebook page, the livestock extension group. If you haven't already, be sure to visit the U h CTAHR. Extension website and our YouTube channel listed in the shownotes.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yes, and for additional information about this and other topics or comments, send us an email at Balau at hawaii.edu. That's VWAL au at hawaii.edu. Thanks for listening to the livestock Paula Oh,

Shannon Sand:

and before we go show us some love by leaving us a review and then stay tuned for next month's podcast.