Dynama+ Dynama

Step 5 Complete the Dynama worksheet

The Dynama worksheet automatically takes values from the Dynama+ AECalc, Prices and Huscosts worksheets and combines them with data about births, losses, sales and purchases to build a ten year sequence of livestock schedules.

A livestock schedule (Dynama HERD TABLE 7) provides a snapshot of the structure and productivity of a cattle herd for up to a decade.

Once the performance of the cattle business has been identified in the livestock schedule, the Dynama worksheet connects its cattle trading outcomes to cost, asset and loans input to project cash flow, net income, debt and net worth.

Data Tables 1 to 6 - Deaths, Calving and Prices

The first four data tables in the Dynama worksheet only require entries for the first year if values are expected to remain the same over time. Year one are normal data entry cells (black text). Years two to ten are automatically generated (red-brown text) and allow new entries to be over typed. These formulas copy the initial values to the second and subsequent years in each table but may be overridden with value entries if later years are expected to have different values to the first year.

Female death rates table from Dynama worksheet.The values entered for annual death rates are automatically copied to the remaining years of the program unless they are overwritten. The values shown for death rates are the same as those used in the Breedcow+ example file.

Male death rates from Dynama worksheet. This table shows the death rates for all males that are entered into Table 2 of the Dynama worksheet. Herd bull death rates are transferred to HERD TABLE 7. It must be remembered that stock that are purchased and sold in the same year will not have a death rate applied against the opening number as this class of stock is not “carried” for the entire year. Adjustment to sale prices or weights may have to be made if significant losses occur in purchased stock.

Weaning rates table from Dynama example file.

Re Data Table 3 – Weaning Rates: The weaning rate on "Cows mated 1 year" is based on the number of calves counted as weaned from "Heifers 1 year" as per the start of year description. Actual mating for those weaners may have been early in the current budget year, or in the previous budget year. Weaning rate for each age group of breeders is multiplied by eligible breeders in that group to determine "new calves" produced for the budget year.

Purchase prices shown in Table 4 of the Dynama worksheet should be entered so that they include (on a per head basis) all of the costs associated with purchasing the cattle unless such costs are not separable from the general property costs that will be entered later in the worksheet as part of fixed or overhead costs.

Data tables 5A and 6A are female and male sale prices that are taken directly from the Prices worksheet. Any desired changes to the values shown in these tables are best made in the Prices worksheet. Tables 5B and 6B (to the right of Tables 5A and 6A), are opening inventory values. Closing inventory values are taken off the opening values of the next year. Prices for “new calves” are to set sale prices only. “New calves” will have their closing values set off the opening values for heifer and steer weaners for the following year.

As the role of inventory values is to provide an estimate of the asset value of the overall herd, not just the sale cattle, inventory values can be altered if the sale prices are not an accurate representation of overall group values. These values are used to determine herd value and to calculate net income. To change an inventory value in Table 5B or 6B, override the formula with the desired value.

Inventory values of bulls almost certainly should be changed to reflect the paddock value of the total group of cattle, not just the sale value or purchase price. The inventory value for bulls should be somewhere between the cull price and the average purchase price.

Herd Table 7 - Herd Growth, Transactions and Carryovers

Table 7 is the livestock schedule that underpins the Dynama+ program. It takes the opening number for each class of cattle for the year, adds purchases, deducts sales, transfers spays out of the breeder groups then calculates deaths, new calves, and closing numbers.

Required entries to complete the livestock schedule for year one include:

• opening numbers for each class of livestock (at the beginning of year one)
• purchases
• spaying, and
• sales

The closing numbers from year one become the opening numbers for the next age group the following year. The year one closing numbers of new calves is divided between weaner heifers and steer weaners in the opening numbers of year two.

The number of new calves can be calculated either from the opening number of breeders plus purchases less females spayed or set aside and sales or from just the opening number of breeders.

File:New calves.PNG

New calves calculation option