Livestock Record Keeping Questions.

[RHankinsJr]

I hate that my first post on this forum has to be asking for information from everyone. The first locked thread in the beginners section says "No Ads" Please note that this is not a sales pitch or an ad of any sort. I am just wanting to ask questions to producers.

I am wanting to find out the general information most ranchers keep on their livestock.

I am wanting to create a tool for some locals that will help maintain their records for them so they don't have to worry about paperwork errors ( or missing pages ).

I have 10 years of experience writing software for the livestock industry ( auction software ) but I am wanting to do something that will directly help the producer.

All I really want to do is to ask some questions and get some input from you as to what you would find useful in a software package. Even if you are not interested in a software package or you already have your own, I would like to learn more from you.

No producer is too small or too large, and any species specific information you can give me will help.

I truly hope that this does not violate the intent of this board, and if It does I hope you will accept my apologies and please remove it from the board.

If you would be interested in lending a helping hand you can either reply to this post or you can email me at [email protected]

Thanks again

Richard Hankins, Jr
Avery, Texas USA

( p.s. if you can give me some good reasons to tell my wife why she doesn't want bottle calves please send that as well. She doesn't want to listen to me on the subject )

 

[RHankinsJr]

While looking for information I found this nice post:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=55759&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=book

Which is a good start, if you have anything more to add or would just like to directly answer questions for me, I'd still appreciate it very much. ( as well as trying to talk the wife out of bottle calves still )

Thanks again,

Richard Hankins, Jr

 

[dun]

Most of what you are asking is on the follwing thread:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=58859

 

[backhoeboogie]

I've got a ledger than I keep manually. Once I get on the computer I put the information in a word processing file that is disc backed up. The wife puts all the info on a spread sheet. Basically we know who sired what calf out of what cow/heifer. When the cows are palpated we keep a seperate list from a print out of the electronic file. We known who was vaccinated when with what on an electronic file but it is not a living document (just an electronic file plagiarized out of another file and stored).

We calve year round. If we didn't, our neighbor's angus bull would cover the cows or heifers and we don't want that. Most of the herd is calving on 10 1/2 to 12 month intervals. It works fine in this climate. Except that you have to keep a watch year round.

The system I am using seems to work for me. I have written programs for other things but not cattle. No need to do so that I can tell.

We're probably set in our ways.