Setting up some complex record keeping

[flyingfarmer]

Hello All,
new to the forum, but have seen lots of useful information here! Looking for some advice here. My family has a dairy farm and we have a sheet of paper that we keep cow records on. The top of each sheet has the following column titles: Cow #, Previous Breeding Date, Previous Fresh Date, Jan, Feb, etc until Dec. Each row is lead off with the Cow # and then her records follow. On paper we fill in the months when she was bred (Labeled as 'b-day (Stud Code)' ), when she was fresh (labeled as 'f-day-(h or b depending on sex of calf), and other doctoring that happened to the cow each month.
So here's what I'm looking to do:
Make it so that each sheet is a new year (2016, 2015, etc.) that I can add to each year. When I create a new year sheet I'd like it to auto-populate the Previous Breeding Date/ Fresh date.

I'd like it to auto-populate with just the Month, Date, Year (1/4/17) of the associated breeding/fresh date from the previous year. I'm assuming it would use some form of the IF formula?
If a cow dies from one year to the next we do not include her anymore, so its not like the cows # stays in the exact same spot each year, which is where I'm also running into trouble.

So is there anyone who can offer help or suggestions? If its too complicated just tell me.

Thanks In Advance!

 

[country101]

Flyingfarmer to do what you are wanting to do sounds pretty easy and interests me since I have worked on cattle farms and like record keeping. I dont know that I can help you on here since getting data lined out the way you need would be kind of hard.If you want to start a sample workbook and put data and comments in it for me to know what you are looking for in each area, I will help build you a spreadsheet. I might have to ask some more specific questions from the people here to help do that, but you are asking pretty broad questions at the moment.

Something that might interest you and may even fit the bill is the Cow Herd Performance spreadsheet that the University of Arkansas Cooperative extension service put out. Go to UAEX.edu and look for it. If you cant find it, I have it saved somewhere and can also probably find it on the website again. It is a VERY advanced spreadsheet for detailed record keeping that keeps track of all the adjusted weights and values for your calves and keeps some records on the bulls and dams.