Create the ANIMAL table
The procedure to create the ANIMAL table is demonstrated in this Video (wmv) (63.3MB; 4.12min).
Create the ANIMAL table with the following fields:
| Field Name | Data Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CowID | Autonumber | Cow ID unique for all records |
| CowNum | Number | Cow ID unique to a farm |
| FARMERID | Number | Farmer Identification code |
| DOB | Date/Time | Date of birth of the cow |
| Lactation | Number | Lactation number |
| MY | Number | Annual milk yield |
| Mastitis | Yes/No | Has the cow suffered from mastitis in the past 3 months? |
| Metritis | Yes/No | Has the cow ever had metritis? |
| ROP | Yes/No | Has the cow ever had retention of placenta? |
| Lameness | Yes/No | Was the cow lame at the time of survey? |
| Breed | Text | Breed of the cow |
| Comments | Memo | Notes |
Notes
- Apply an input mask to DOB (such as a short date)
- You could create a combo-box for the field Breed if you know beforehand the most common cow breeds.
- Note that the default field size for a Number data type is Long Integer which is okay if you don’t want to store fractions. Use Single or Double if you expect your data to have fractions. You can also use other field sizes such as Byte and Integer but it is usually safe to use Long Integer for numbers without fractions and Double for numbers with fractions. For further information about number field size, keep your cursor in the field size property and press F1.
- Another property in the General tab worth mentioning here is the Default Value. This is the value that is entered automatically in a field and is useful to reduce data entry time if you expect many observations to have the same value (for example, if most of the farmers are from NSW, then this could be specified in the default value property).
- For numbers, Access automatically assigns zero as the default value. I usually prefer to delete this, as zero is then assigned even for the missing values, if the data entry operator doesn’t delete it.
Go to –>Create Relationships