SCHBS Database

The Problem

The Shetland Cattle Herd Book Society (SCHBS) is responsible for the administration and tracking of the Shetland cattle breed. The society had relied on a Microsoft Access database to keep track of animals and owners, but the original developer was no longer available and some major changes were required to keep teh database up to date and relevant to the society. JLP Internet was approached to make these required changes, and to find ways of improving their operations.

The public facing SCHBS website was becoming dated, and the pedigree search feature was not editable directly by the society, which meant the information was often out of date.

Another issue that became apparent was the amount of time required to compile the annual Herd Book, which was a publication with lots of information about animals, owners and members. This took as long as several weeks to put together and was prone to mistakes.

The Solution

Instead of trying to fix the many issues with the old Microsoft Access database, it was decided the best solution was to rebuild the database using modern web technologies. The new database software was designed and built from scratch, and includes many useful features such as:

Member login area, allowing members to register new calf births
Coefficient of Inbreeding (COI) calculation, which is important for breeders to know for each animal
Automatically create various reports, including the registration of birth document, pedigree certificate, and annual Herd Book export
A simple content management system, allowing the society admin to be able to easily update the website

The Benefits

The new database and website have provided many benefits to the society, and continue to save a lot of admin time. Having the database available online means the society can work on it remotely, and share responsibility among various members. It has also allowed the management of the database to recently pass onto another member of the society with minimal disruption.

One of the main benefits the society now gets from the new database system is the annual creation of the Herd Book, which used to be an arduous process is now just a single click of a button to produce the report ready to be sent to the printers. Not only does this save time, it also ensures the information is correct as it is taken directly from the live database.

THe public-facing website has proven to be a very useful tool for the society to keep in touch with their members, publicise news, events and encourage new members to sign up.