Ask any farmer or rancher about record-keeping, and they will tell you their father or grandfather used to keep all his records on a notepad in his shirt pocket. Times have changed, and now those notes and documents can be found in the palm of your hand with a smartphone app or on a desktop computer in the office.
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of apps and programs designed to assist ranchers with keeping track of their records, feed, inventory, performance and return on investment.
Ranch management apps will keep your operation more organized than ever before and also help find cost savings in areas you’d never think of. These features include real-time tracking of weather, forage conditions, animal health and performance, financial information and equipment upkeep without the burden of inputting data into spreadsheets.
One of the main hurdles to adopting management software is skepticism about using technology in general. After all, writing information in a notebook has worked for generations, and you can easily access the materials to write that information in the field, but you may not have a cellphone signal. In other words, “If it isn’t broken, why fix it?” The other hurdle could be the cost. App costs vary, but prices are coming down for most programs, making them an affordable option.
[inline_image file=”51300a6e559a9903c7b599f7af406aaf.jpg” caption=”Hereford heifers roam in north Texas. Courtesy of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service Texas.”]
In addition to cost, Oklahoma State University recommends ranchers consider the following when choosing management software programs: the type of information needed from a software program based on your existing records, the level of support provided by the company, the accessibility of support, how secure the information is and if the data integrates with other software, such as QuickBooks, or with breed associations. Lastly, consider how long the program has existed and how many people use it.
Cow herd data management
CattleMax is a cow-calf management program that helps ranchers keep track of everything within their cow herd. The program has been in existence since 1999. P.J. Porter, a fourth-generation rancher from central Montana who raises Angus and Herefords with her extended family, toldWLJit was hard to stay organized working from paper records and looking at notes from past years.
“That’s kind of what sold me on (CattleMax)—the time that it takes to put the records in there is well worth it in the end because you have everything right at your fingertips, and you can look back at historical data rather than trying to shuffle through papers,” Porter said.“It just seems like once you have it on a computer, you can take more detailed notes and keep better notes on each cow individually than you could on paper.”
CattleMax is available for registered and commercial users and allows users to track a calf from birth to when it is sold. CattleMax allows users to keep detailed breeding records and calving dates. When calving time rolls around, all of the sire and dam information automatically populates, making recording the calves very simple. In a few clicks, you will have your new calf entered.
[inline_image file=”7294b1112292958e720aca5b83b8d1e4.jpg” caption=”A screenshot of the main dashboard of CattleMax.”]
CattleMax also interfaces with most breed associations, such as Angus, Brahman, Hereford, Limousin, Red Angus and Simmental. Tony Basso, who has registered Herefords in northeast Texas and is the marketing coordinator for CattleMax, toldWLJthat registering his herd with the American Hereford Association is easy because the program records the EPDs and all of the breeding information the association requires. The breed association will send EPD data and pedigrees to the producer, who can then import the information into CattleMax.
Medical treatments are also very quickly recorded in CattleMax. Ranchers can enter treatments for one or multiple animals at once. Adding a treatment will also give users the option of putting in a withdrawal date and a booster date, and users will be notified when an animal is still in its withdrawal period.
Porter and Basso agreed the end-of-the-year financial organizer feature has been beneficial for the tax season.
[inline_image file=”38ddb1bccfe62c2adab338fcd81fb6f1.jpg” caption=”A screenshot of what activities can be completed for an individual animal by simply clicking on “Add New Activity” from their individual timeline.”]
“The end-of-the-year organizer in one click sets up all your financials from the year and puts them into a PDF or spreadsheet format that you can give to your accountant instead of having to show a shoebox full of receipts or a notebook full of records,”Basso said. “It makes it so much easier, especially when tax time of year comes around.”
CattleMax is browser-based and secure, and according to its website, the data is encrypted with the same method banks use. Since it is a cloud-based browser, it can be used on cellphones, tablets and computers. Ranchers can have unlimited users on the account, and those users can be assigned roles based on what the administrator on the account would like them to be able to view and/or enter.
The cost of digital management
Commercial herd plans start at $9 per month for up to 100 animals, and registered herd plans start at $15 per month for up to 100 animals. Plans can cover one animal up to an unlimited number of cattle.
Basso said when you calculate the price per head, it is pennies per head per year, and the records it keeps are well worth it. Porter said the benefits CattleMax offers outweigh the costs. Due to the drought and the high price of hay, Porter uses CattleMax as a way to identify the least productive cattle and cull the herd.
[inline_image file=”42432fa5fc45710ee3c69626c0f5869c.jpg” caption=”A view of Pete and Meagan Lannan’s Barney Creek Livestock operation based on the Jordan Ranch in Livingston, MT. Courtesy of USDA.”]
“If I would not have had that kind of data, I would have just had to randomly pick and choose and try to remember what kind of calf does this cow have on an annual basis,” Porter said. “It really helped as far as economics goes.This year, we had 100 fewer cows, but our calf crop is looking amazing just because we did get rid of those lower-end cows.”
CattleMax allows the user to work offline if there is no cellular signal. Through its TagMax feature, you can record the tag number and five custom categories, and it saves the information as a spreadsheet that you can email to yourself and later import when you get a signal. A new feature for CattleMax is the ability to upload spreadsheets from current and previous years to get started.
Other features integrated into CattleMax include rainfall monitoring and equipment records. Porter and Basso said the equipment feature has been invaluable, as it keeps track of when the equipment was serviced and the part numbers. When they go to their supply store, the information they need is easily accessible. Porter said she has the ranch’s pastures mapped, so she can see how many cattle are grazing at any time.
Porter said CattleMax does not have any drought management tools, but she likes to “see a correlation between the rainfall and the calf weights, and that’s cool because it’s just right there in black and white.”
Planning for drought
Martin Townsend, the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance’s Conservation Committee coordinator based in Montana, spoke at a recent Society for Range Management seminar titled “When in Drought” about a tool for drought planning, the Rangeland Analysis Platform tool found at rangelands.app.
The Rangeland Analysis Platform is available for free on your desktop, and funding is provided through USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Working Lands for Wildlife initiative.
[inline_image file=”d444511c611165e683992c382efbb6fd.jpg” caption=”A screenshot of the Production Explorer tool in rangelands.app, which shows the current year’s production and long-term average. The area selected is in Montana, just north of Miles City.”]
According to Townsend, rangelands.app measures the green response of rangelands from satellite imagery. Townsend said he uses the Production Explorer tool the most, as it has the ability to use growth trends from the last 16 days, current year and past years for your selected area. The tool has a stocking rate calculator that allows you to manipulate data, such as the number of days grazing on the area selected, average intake of the animal each day and expected harvest efficiency.
“If there are pastures left that haven’t been grazed on, you can try to basically work backward and see how much grass inventory you have left us for the year,” Townsend toldWLJ.“Then comparing it to different years that you think might be comparable on historical data.We’ve been using 2003 a lot as a comparison for the last couple of years. There’s a three-year drought then, and we’re in the middle of a three-year drought now.”
[inline_image file=”dc395059f26615d301dcacd6e6b0b6ef.jpg” caption=”A screenshot of the 16-day production for a plot in Montana. The solid black line represents the current year, and the dotted lines represent varying percentages of the long-term average.”]
Townsend said the easiest way to get started is to have your pastures mapped or have a Google Maps file of your range. Otherwise, you’ll have to search for your pastures on the application or draw a general rectangle of the area you are interested in to get a broad outlook. Townsend said it doesn’t matter if the land is leased or if it’s Bureau of Land Management or U.S. Forest Service land.
The app can also show changes in tree vegetation and encroachment over time. Townsend said another helpful feature is that users can look through historical imagery to monitor stream channel changes or erosion. The type of vegetation doesn’t matter—whether there are grasslands or sagebrush—and the app can filter for perennial or annual grass cover and cheatgrass.
Townsend said the app is “pretty user friendly,” but he does one-on-one consulting with ranchers in Montana. The biggest obstacle, he said, is figuring out what information you are looking at.
[inline_image file=”b4b36db458229006136306e820faffba.jpg” caption=”Cattle graze on public rangeland in Malheur County, OR, with Steens Mountain in the background. Courtesy of BLM, Greg Shine.”]
Townsend said other applications are available for mapping, such as Grass-Cast, a collaboration between USDA and Colorado State University; Avenza Maps; or onX, a pasture boundary map that Townsend also uses on the job.
Whether you continue to keep records on paper, use spreadsheets or move your operation into the digital era, applications can help manage your operation, keep track of your records and improve your bottom line. Do your research and talk with other ranchers who are using data management applications to see what might work for your operation.
