DC305 inventory reports (INV)

Definition

Inventory reports in DC305 are head-count pivots of the animals in the herd on a given day, broken down by class: milking cows, dry cows, springing heifers, open and bred heifers by age band, calves, bulls and steers. Many herds keep a set of these as saved reports named INV1 to INV6 (or similar), each giving a different cut of the herd, for example:

cows by lactation group and reproductive status (milking vs dry, pregnant vs open),
heifers by age band (e.g. 2-month bands from birth to calving) and breeding status,
animals by pen or location,
bulls, steers and beef-cross animals.

DC305 also has built-in inventory reports under the ECON command:

Command	Report
`ECON\I`	Inventory report: the herd today, by class
`ECON\IR`	Inventory report with cull rate
`ECON\ID`	Past (yearly) cow inventory summary; `ECON\ID750` covers the past 750 days
`ECON\IHD`	Past heifer inventory

Other ECON switches are not inventory reports: \E dead cow summary, \S bulk tank SCC report, \B NAAB calving ease report.

These reports are the census: the observed count used at month end, for lender borrowing-base certificates, and to check a herd inventory roll-forward.

INV report names, contents and class definitions are set up per herd. INV1 in one herd is not INV1 in another. Read the saved command behind each report, and map it in the herd’s private dc305-vocab page.

In herds checked (Nov 2026), INV1–INV6 are saved commands, not built-in reports. For example, one herd’s INV1 is a youngstock age summary of the form SUM BY AGE SEX FOR LACT=0, with an extra filter that drops one pen.

How to pull it in DC305

Start with the built-in reports:

ECON\I                                       inventory today, by class
ECON\IR                                      inventory with cull rate
ECON\ID750                                   cow inventory over the past 750 days
ECON\IHD                                     past heifer inventory

Herd-saved inventory reports are built from SUM or COUNT with class conditions. Illustrative building blocks (RC values are the VAS codes; see RC codes):

SUM BY RC FOR LACT>0                         cows by reproductive status
COUNT FOR LACT>0 RC<>6                       milking cows (live animals only by default)
COUNT FOR LACT>0 RC=6                        dry cows
SUM BY LACT FOR LACT>0                       cows by lactation number
COUNT FOR LACT=0 RC<>8 AGE=0-2               heifer calves 0–2 months (AGE is in months; range inclusive)
COUNT FOR LACT=0 RC=5                        pregnant heifers
COUNT FOR LACT=0 RC=8                        bull calves
SUM BY PEN                                   head by pen

These count live animals only, which is what a census wants. To count animals that left during the period (for a roll-forward), add \B or \D.

Run the reports on the last day of the period, after all events for the period are entered, and save the output with the run date. Inventory reports are current-state snapshots: run late, they show the herd on the run date, not on month end.

Typical range

Herd context: US Holsteins, freestall or dry-lot, raising own heifers, monthly close.

Tie-out: the census and the roll-forward from events should agree within a small tolerance per class; differences of more than about 1–2% of a class need explaining before a lender close.
Timing residuals: events for the last days of a month entered on the 1st or 2nd of the next month are a common, benign source of differences.

Common mistakes

Assuming report names mean the same thing across herds. Check each INV report’s definition.
Rolling milking vs dry forward from events. Dry-offs are often not recorded as events (or are entered late), so the milking/dry split can’t always be rebuilt from events; take it from the census.
Springer and age-band splits from events. Moving heifers between age bands and into “springer” depends on dates, not events; use the census.
Running the report days after month end and calling it month end.
Class definitions that don’t match the lender’s. E.g. the lender’s “springing heifer” window, or excluding beef-cross females. Map herd classes to collateral classes explicitly.
Counting bull calves as heifers. LACT=0 includes RC 8 (bull calves); add RC<>8 or split by sex.
Double counting: an animal in two classes because conditions overlap (e.g. dry cows also counted as pregnant cows). Check that classes sum to the total head count.
Leaving out animals off-site (heifers at a grower, cattle at a feedlot) that the herd still owns, or including ones it doesn’t.