AIMS? Worth it?

[NEFarmwife]

Any of you have AIMS software thru AAA? Saw that it's nearly $500.

Wondering if it's worth the cost. Appears to do a lot but I feel most things, we can already achieve without it?

I didn't even come across it until I was looking at planned mating EPD estimators and saw it could do that. That's not worth the price for me, since it's purely an estimate but wondered if it would pull that info like it was a new registered calf.

I think when our registered herd got larger, it may be more beneficial for records but wanted your thoughts?

 

[gizmom]

We use AIMS been on it since it came out, before they offered all of the online options. I don't remember exactly what we paid but it wasn't 500. I like being able to put cattle into different pens, I also like being able to figure out expected EPD's on matings. The new 3.0 offers a lot of new options so many I haven't got them all figured out yet. The staff in the AIMS dept is great but not enough of them. Since the new version came out I have spent a whole lot of time on hold waiting for assistance. They are still working out some bugs but it is a powerful program. When you palpate put in date palpated and number of days bred it will calculate to determine sire of calf based on dates for AI and natural service. The ET feature is very helpful in tracking flushes and eggs used, it also offers a semen inventory and tracks use of semen.(one of the areas that still has a few bugs)

Gizmom

 

[NEFarmwife]

We use AIMS been on it since it came out, before they offered all of the online options. I don't remember exactly what we paid but it wasn't 500. I like being able to put cattle into different pens, I also like being able to figure out expected EPD's on matings. The new 3.0 offers a lot of new options so many I haven't got them all figured out yet. The staff in the AIMS dept is great but not enough of them. Since the new version came out I have spent a whole lot of time on hold waiting for assistance. They are still working out some bugs but it is a powerful program. When you palpate put in date palpated and number of days bred it will calculate to determine sire of calf based on dates for AI and natural service. The ET feature is very helpful in tracking flushes and eggs used, it also offers a semen inventory and tracks use of semen.(one of the areas that still has a few bugs)

Gizmom

We can do a lot of that in cattlemax. We haven't upgraded to the registered herd version which would allow the embryos but when we input sire, we simply do dam/sire for name.

Wish I could get a free trial to just dabble with it. Do you feel like there is a large learning curve? Or fairly user friendly? Does it work cohesively with your aaa login? I.E. when a new calf or purchase becomes yours, would it transfer that to this program?

 

[gizmom]

I would have to say it is user friendly and as for updating the new version has made that very easy. I am still having issues with printing some reports they have a way around it but wish they would get it corrected. The semen inventory just isn't working right. The more you use it the easier it gets. Is it worth the $ I just don't know, especially if your already up and running with cattle fax. I have no experience with any other cattle management software other than AIMS. One thing I can't do yet is download my scale head info into Aims and that would save me a world of time. It might do it but no one has been able to tell me how.

Gizmom

 

[angus9259]

I used it till I switched to a Mac. No Mac version. Weird.

 

[NEFarmwife]

I used it till I switched to a Mac. No Mac version. Weird.

Hadn't even thought about that. We're Mac users too.

 

[pdfangus]

I can do most all of the things listed above with my excel speadsheet . except the epd calculations
but I quit chasing epds years ago...

cost was the time I spent creating it...

 

[jscunn]

So what is the biggest difference between AIMS and the just the regular data entry on the angus.org logon where you submit breeding data, weaning wts, etc? I have never seen AIMS so I would like to know.