handydandy
Well-known member
I am looking for software to help keep track of my cattle and expenses. I have both a reg. herd and commercial. Would anyone like to give suggestions or should we stick to setting it up with excel?
cattle management software
- Thread starter handydandy
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bigbull338
Well-known member
cattlemax will do what you want since you have a ref an comm herd.i think the unlimited headcount is like $450 for the program.it also interfaces with some of the breed asso.so you can reg an transfer cattle online.handydandy":mme04yq9 said:
Hill Creek Farm
Well-known member
cfpinz and bigbull338, I do all my bookwork the old fashion way, writing it down in a herd book. I like it the old fashion way. It may take just a little bit more time, but at least I can have it available and handy. A computer can always crash and I would possibly lose it. I have nothing against the Cattlemax software, but it's just not for me.
We use Cow Sense to track our commercial and registered animals. It is the only one I have used, have been told it's a little more complicated than some. I still track ranch ecpenses on an excel spreadsheet, but the cow sense is nice for the animals since it figures ADG, and %body wt. weaned/cow, anj 205 day wts. and so on.
Hill Creek Farm
Well-known member
The only type of technology I own is a Heat Watch system.
Cattleman200
Well-known member
There are several programs that would work for a commercial operation. It would be nice though if you found a program that interacted with your breed assn. on your registered herd. That way your EPD updates could be done without actually going in every six months or yearly and having to change every one in your program. Also it should allow you to hopefully send in weaning/yearling updates from the program. I watched a really good demonstration on a software package from Magnum Digital out of Missouri while in Louisville but the program was not compadable with breed associations software. It had an AI and ET module that was also available for an aditional $50. The cost of the package was $249. I havent been to the website but its http://www.magnumdigital.com . It allowed up to 6 pictures per animal as well as 75% of data entry from pick lists without touching the keyboard. About 30 or so feature options. Best of luck, Bill
Circle H Ranch
http://www.chrlimousin.com
cattleman has a great point with using one compatable with you breed association. Cow sense and Red Wing are used by RAAA and works for us but it(Cow Sense) was expensive, somthing like $600 if I remember right.
roanbullman
Active member
Cattleman200":5ziz42bb said:
There are several programs that would work for a commercial operation. It would be nice though if you found a program that interacted with your breed assn. on your registered herd. That way your EPD updates could be done without actually going in every six months or yearly and having to change every one in your program. Also it should allow you to hopefully send in weaning/yearling updates from the program. I watched a really good demonstration on a software package from Magnum Digital out of Missouri while in Louisville but the program was not compadable with breed associations software. It had an AI and ET module that was also available for an aditional $50. The cost of the package was $249. I havent been to the website but its http://www.magnumdigital.com . It allowed up to 6 pictures per animal as well as 75% of data entry from pick lists without touching the keyboard. About 30 or so feature options.
Our family has been using the Magnum Digital program for over 4 years. We updated to AI and ET program. The feature options are great. Moves data from calf to heifer to cow or bull herd, even has steer program. Our breed assn has used the data for development of EPD's. The pedigree selection detail is great. Major part of our record keeping. Sure pencil and paper are okay and needed, but a computer program can tie information together to review and update time & time again. Of course easy of sharing with potential customers is great too.
Many choices of software out there, some very expensive. MDI is my choice for the money.
Cowboymom
Well-known member
We have used Cattle Max for a couple of years now. I really like it. You can set up multiple herds, you don't even need to identify each individual animal for the commercial cows. They have a way to set it up according to fields.
I used to use the old hand herd book method and then made up my own spread sheets on the computer. The problem with that is there is no cross-indexing from one year to the next. I guess you could if you set up a sheet for each cow but I never took the time, we run too many cows and I am not that handy with a spread sheet program.
Cattle Max is basically set up on the same format as Quickbooks. I think it cost $350 but I might be wrong, I know that when I started looking software was like $3500!
Their technical support has been great. The only trouble I can report is that when you download your performance data from your association, you might get data on every cow and bull you have ever owned. That happened to us from the Hereford Association, but nothing the AHA can do would surprise me. It listed every bull and cow we had registered since 1933! I just went through and put them as reference cattle. To be honest, I haven't done it to all of the bulls yet. I just took out the active herd bulls and designated them as such.
There are many reports and projections you can do with it and it will show if you are making a profit or not. I haven't taken the time to learn more than I actually have had to. It will do sales brochures and catalogs.
You can search an individual by number, breeding or age. It is so cool to type in a number and have all the calves of a cow pup up. If you go to the pedigree page, it will tell you what cattle are related to an individual.
Well worth the money and I have already received one update. Some breeds are more interfaced with it than others.
I used to use the old hand herd book method and then made up my own spread sheets on the computer. The problem with that is there is no cross-indexing from one year to the next. I guess you could if you set up a sheet for each cow but I never took the time, we run too many cows and I am not that handy with a spread sheet program.
Cattle Max is basically set up on the same format as Quickbooks. I think it cost $350 but I might be wrong, I know that when I started looking software was like $3500!
Their technical support has been great. The only trouble I can report is that when you download your performance data from your association, you might get data on every cow and bull you have ever owned. That happened to us from the Hereford Association, but nothing the AHA can do would surprise me. It listed every bull and cow we had registered since 1933! I just went through and put them as reference cattle. To be honest, I haven't done it to all of the bulls yet. I just took out the active herd bulls and designated them as such.
There are many reports and projections you can do with it and it will show if you are making a profit or not. I haven't taken the time to learn more than I actually have had to. It will do sales brochures and catalogs.
You can search an individual by number, breeding or age. It is so cool to type in a number and have all the calves of a cow pup up. If you go to the pedigree page, it will tell you what cattle are related to an individual.
Well worth the money and I have already received one update. Some breeds are more interfaced with it than others.
eldiente
Member
http://www.lionedge.com/usa/cattle.php
I have really liked this low cost, simple feature program. It downloads individual animal data from Angus and Hereford associations. Not sure how easy it is to submit data to those associations yet since I'm still primarily commercial.
It has simple financial functions like income and expenses, but if you are handling payroll or multiple financial accounts I strongly recommend keeping the finances in a dedicated financial program like Quickbooks. Payroll bookeeping exceed the capabilities of most cattle software programs in my opinion.
I have really liked this low cost, simple feature program. It downloads individual animal data from Angus and Hereford associations. Not sure how easy it is to submit data to those associations yet since I'm still primarily commercial.
It has simple financial functions like income and expenses, but if you are handling payroll or multiple financial accounts I strongly recommend keeping the finances in a dedicated financial program like Quickbooks. Payroll bookeeping exceed the capabilities of most cattle software programs in my opinion.
brenda
Well-known member
cattle pro
vs_cattle
Well-known member
Cattle Works Is what i use its the best
