Ooooh, I Hate the CCIA Website!!!

[randiliana]

It has to be the slowest most painful thing out there. Even submitting info as files takes forever, and god forbid you have to do anything ONLINE . I've just spent the last hour trying to Express Verify my calves, and it still isn't done.

Don't know why it has to be this slow and painful. There are a lot of secure sites out there that are 5 times as fast to deal with. I'm still on dial up, but even the high speed guys say it is slow!!!

Well, hopefully, I can get this done before bed time........ :devil2:

 

[hillsdown]

Hmn...I remember b@otching about this last year or so, but everyone said that they had no problems.

The fact that I have to go on that site and do something makes me physically ill. The amount of time and frustration it causes is pathetic. :frowns:

It took me 5 and a half hours this year to do the calves in Sept. and what p@ssed me off the most was that it would kick you out every once and a while or the page would freeze and you would have to refresh,,, BUT if you refreshed to early it would kick you out again and you would have to relog in... :devil2:

With the amount of money that goes into this d@mn program they had better get it straightened out and I have complained to the many many times..

BTW high speed is still too slow. :roll:

 

[rockridgecattle]

I have to work on it tonight..not looking forward to it at all.

 

[hillsdown]

Good Luck RR.. :tiphat:

Oh and how many times in the last three years have you all gone on it to do some work only to see the notice,,{Under Construction}...

You think with all the d@mn construction they would have it built already...

 

[randiliana]

Good Luck RR!!

In the end I was on there from about 6 pm to 10:30 pm. Had to refresh a couple times, but in never did kick me off. My biggest problem was 'Express Verifying' It wouldn't accept my file upload so I had to do it all manually on the website :devil2: . Then, I had to get the birth certificate done up for the calves that are going to the sale.....But in the end I got 'er all done.

 

[R. John Johnson]

Ah, yes. Age verifying cattle on the CCIA website. When I use satellite high speed, it reacts at the same speed most sites do on dial up. One neighbor took hours to register a hand full of cows to get the age verified premium. I guess if you calculate it as a per hour return, it doesn't sound bad, but who has that kind of time to waste?

Hey RR, how's the feed situation up there?

John

 

[rockridgecattle]

got it done but it seemed like forever. Not a user friendly site. You have to hit this key before that key, or it won't work.
I tried imputing the tage ranges, all worked. Then i went to imput the data with the tags. All was well until i wanted to process. Dang it. See i have some unused tags in the range. CCIA knnows the tags are mine, figured it would just keep the unused in the system untill next time. No that would be to easy. I had to go back, remove the unused tags and input the inividual # then complete the data all over again.
Not a user friendly system. Randi, you are lucky you can input the Express, can't the pfizer.
Got a call from the Auction mart today. We are in the special angus sale on Saturday. Now it's not just angus, but they have allowed limo and, basically anything red or black. Anyways I am dirgressing. The call was on behalf of the buyers because they want to know what has been done to the calves in the way of vaccinations, preconditioning. All that is to be written down and will be announced by the auctioneer when they are in the ring. As well they are to be all age verified and a certificate sent along with the truck because most are heading west. We always age verify, but they could have given more notice incase some poor souls have trouble with the CCIA web site.

 

[rockridgecattle]

Hey RR, how's the feed situation up there?

John

Well i would like to say what feed but...Crop insurance is to come out next week and weigh and test the bales. We are trying to bale some alfalfa straw and timothy straw for the bee yards and bedding but it just won't stop raining. Did I mention that the timothy is a bugger to bale. 5 hours and 16 bales. Plugged up, sheared pins, plugged again...husband was mad.

We are shipping out 25 cows and 1 bull on tuesday for the regular sale. They are the old ones, 1999 and older. Then on November 10th we are preg testing they younger stock...open goes, some of the younger have had some problem with funky genetics they go (calves with bottle neck scrotum that you can not band), if the calf is poor, they go, and if the cows came of pasture on the thin side they go. With all the grass all cows should be fat like pigs. It's gonna be a hard cull. Some awful nice cows are going to grow wheels. But the cost to buy and truck feed just does not pay.
I have one last pet. Yes i have a pet. She is the most gentle cow you ever saw. I always have an escape plan but i can sit down and lean up against her when she is laying down. She comes when she is called, she love to be had fed bread, has wonderful calves, and even let a 8 year old boy sit just outside her pen (he was safe) 4 feet from her and watch her calf, clean the calf and the first suck. And she thought nothing of it that this was odd. When i had to bag and tag the calf she was there licking my jacket cleaning the gunk off me. She has to go cause she falls in the age bracket. If we are going to down size we want to keep the young stock cause it will take time to rebuild on a smaller herd.
I'm depressed now...how is your feed situation? How about them fields and the water standing for so long...what will next year's crop be like with alfalfa under water or water logged for so long. How about if it snows before it freezes and the full culverts freeze solid. I think next spring might be just as bad if not worse due to more overland flooding. I think i digressed again.
Were you at the MCPA meeting at the beginning of the month?

 

[rockridgecattle]

the CCIA website is where Canadian cattle producers go to age verify their calves with the RFID manditory tags. The tags are distributed by the government. Then the calves can be shipped to under 30 month countries. It is also our system for trace back in case of disease out break.

 

[R. John Johnson]

Well RR, I've got about at third of the feed I need, but I've got a plan. I've already weaned the calves and sent them to a feed lot. The best ones will be sold in mid December at the Cook's sale. With no calves on them, the cows need less feed. I'm going to pasture some uncut hayfields to extend the grazing season as long as I can. I have some year old hay that should get me to mid December. Then the cows will go to a feed lot, to return in time for calving. I have enough hay to get from their return until green grass. With no cows here, I'm free to go to Winnipeg to work at my engineering job. That should pay for most of the feed lot costs. The rest will come from the savings of not having hayed all that flooded ground :roll:
Sorry to hear about culling that favorite cow. I know times are tough and it's a business decision, but it still doesn't make it any easier.

I talked to my next door neighbor, who is our MCPA rep. From what he tells me the government is fully convinced that the existing ag programs will cover our losses
:help: Did you apply for the Agri-Stability advance payment? :roll: :roll: Makes me glad I have a good paying job to supplement my income.

Oh, and for our friends in the Lower 48, the government may distribute the tags, but they are not free. I'm not sure anymore what they cost, but IIRC the cost is now somewhere between $3 and $5 a tag to go along with that lovely experience of registering them.

Chin up RR. Sounds like we'll both get through this and have stories of the hard times to bore our grandkids with:lol:

John

John

 

[rockridgecattle]

We too are in the process of fencing off a quarter of hay to extend the grazing season.

 

[randiliana]

We pay $2.35/tag here. That is about the cheapest I have found.