Presentation on different software programs given

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas

Dr. Larry Falconer (left) and Jeffery Stapper confer before the opening session on computerized beef cattle record keeping alternatives. -Staff photo by Taylor

January 24, 2002 -- There was a time when a producer purchased a bull and a few cows and let nature take its course.

Hopefully, there would be a fresh crop of calves within the year. Sometimes ... not.

With the technology changing daily, new record keeping methods have been developed to assist the producer in producing the herds he aspires to own.

At the Corpus Christi Farm and Ranch Show held earlier this month, Dr. Larry Falconer, Texas Agriculture Extension Service (TAES) Economist, made a presentation to producers who were interested in "Computerized Beef Cattle Management Record Keeping Alternatives."

During the presentation, Falconer talked about several different kinds of programs and their levels and capabilities that are designed to serve the markets in "three different levels of sophistication."

"One program that is kind of a solution for small volumes of record keeping on herds is the CattleMax," said Falconer.

This program was presented as the beef cattle management software and is designed for commercial and seedstock herds of all sizes. There are editions available from a Small Herd Basic Edition for $150, which can record up to 50 active cow records to the top of the line Seedstock Edition offered at $550. All editions offer the same records and features.

The programs offer features for herd update, pre-designed reports and worksheets and Standardized Performance Analysis (SPA) Production measures, according to Falconer.

Another product is the LonghornMax which is designed "specifically for the Texas Longhorn breed."

It enables producers to record horn measurement, pedigree information and pictures, and is the official software program of the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America (TLBAA.) It will cost the producer about $295.

"RanchMax inventory management is a system designed for ranches with large cattle operations that identify their cattle as herds rather than on an individual basis," said Falconer.

Using this program, producers are able to track grazing, pasture usage and feed inventory information. Stocker operations are able to maintain their cattle inventory records by lots.

Along with this program is a system, BullMax, which allows producers to maintain individual bull records. Pricing of this system can be obtained at www.RanchMax.com.

"Most of the high end programs will let you take individual cows and see how they relate to cows in older groups," said Falconer.

"When you go to enter data on these cows, what it will basically do is build a worksheet."

Falconer said that producers will need a permanent identification and a birthdate to create the systems and whatever else they want to track is possible.

Another system that is offered is "THE Beef Cattle fIRM" program. It enables beef cattle producers to "enter, store, summarize and report the records they maintain for cows, bulls and calves," and sells for about $100, according to Falconer.

It allows individual cow, bull and calf performance, sale information and inventory records to be recorded.

The CowRecordBase.MDB, an individual cow/calf record keeping data base was developed by Falconer, Pete Flores and John Parker of the Corpus Christi TAES.

This involves a workshop which is "designed to provide cow-calf producers with training to develop a customized record keeping system for beef cattle herds."

It was created to enhance manual record keeping methods and requires a clear idea of information which producers want to keep, according to Falconer.

CowCalf Program evolved from ideas of producers, animal scientists and veterinarians.

It is used to make management decisions "based on linked selection, reproduction, nutrition and economic data."

It sells for about $500. These records are interconnected between the cows, bulls and calves.

Some producers will continue to record their herds the way they have done in previous years, but by using a data base, the information can be easily entered, retrieved, updated and deleted, said Falconer.