What Software Do You Use to Manage Your Herd?

Do you use software to manage your herd? I'm looking for something where I can easily keep up with purchases/sales, calendar events (births, vaccinations, etc.), contact info for people (vets, breeders, etc.), and any other important info for my animals. I want to be able to run a search and get all info related to a specific animal, all vaccinations, and such. Either a desktop program or an app will work. Our critter head count has gotten to the point where I need to document the info before I start forgetting some of it.

What do you use, and what do you like/dislike about it?

Not to be a wise*** but paper and pencil. I keep a "cow page" for each of my cows, all births, breedings, dry off, vet info, etc listed in chronological order. Then I keep a list of each pasture, who is there and their calving date, calf number, sex and sire of calf. On this sheet is the number of the bull that is in there to breed ; date he went in & came out. I keep a separate sheet for each day we sell at the stockyard, list of who went and attach a copy of the check stub which I note who was sold together with whom( singles or pairs or who in each group) and the weight and price per pound is on it. Also a sheet for any purchases, the date, cost, age of cow and ID number. If she is a "keeper" she gets a cow page, some are for investment, buy raise the calf and sell so don't get a page as they are usually older cows and are strictly there to make some money that year. Each group that is preg ck has a sheet,list of how far each cow is, and the vet & date it was done. The info is then transferred to each cow page. Yes it is alot of work; we run 200 head of brood cows. But that said, I am thankful for a "paper" copy everytime the electricity goes out, when we are in the barn and there is no service in an area and the phone doesn't even work, and there are 3 of us running cows in the chute, giving vaccinations and opening whichever gate needs to be according to where they are going. Looking at a computer for any length of time gives me a headache, I can't do "kindle " to read books. And it never gets "lost" in cyberspace, batteries never die, never gets corrupted(except by cow manure!). I have looked at a couple of beef programs and can't find one that fits and I would always be making "hard copies" anyway. Maybe someone would have a suggestion for me too....

I use Excel and it isn't enough. This year I had over 40 kids born here and I sold most of them along with quite of few adult goats. It is a challenge remembering who went where and who I kept.

Check out a program called Easy Keeper. I have only used it for a short time as a trial and never really investigated all of the features but it might do what you want.

Wow farmerjan! That sounds like a LOT of paper! Sounds like it works well for you, but that definitely isn't the direction I want to go. There should be a program that does everything that you're already doing. I just have to find it.

Thanks babsbag! I'll look into it. We've also been using Excel, and it doesn't do what I want. We have a much smaller herd than you do, but I thought it would be good to start something now before it gets out of hand.

I just did a quick Google search and there are a lot of apps. One is called Livestock Manager, and there are a bunch of others. I can't help much with recommendations though, I also prefer paper. I have a small herd so it works for me. I much prefer having hard copies of things I need to know!

Surprisingly, my paperwork isn't as big a deal as it sounds once you get the cow pages set up for the individual cows. The thing that is a saving grace is that there have been times that we have said, remember when those heifers were at "joes" and we moved them who was there or where did we move 18's daughter when we moved them out and I can go back in the pages and find all that stuff. I am a throwback to the kids who didn't mind the busywork in school and computers are just not my favourite thing so it works, but I know there are alot of people in this more modern day & age that wouldn't like it. And you do it as soon after the event as possible so you don't forget. We keep little notebooks, pocket size, that stuff gets written down in like when we go to the stockyard, or when we are calving and we tag a calf, as soon as you get back in the truck, it gets written down. Then it gets transferred to the appropriate sheet. When we get cows in to check or move, we count the animals, and if there is one missing, I get out the list and we go down the #'s and see who is missing. I check off each one and it's easy to see who didn't come out. Gives me time to visually look the animals over too. It's all kept on a clipboard and I make a current copy for my son to keep in his truck. Neither one of us has smart phones so the apps aren't options.

Look up Kintracks.

Works wonders.

I need to start getting serious about all of this too. I know that Easy Keeper links into ADGA which is nice, saves a bunch of time entering info. I will check Kintracks

Over the years I've done the "computer saves time, money, paper" thing, and I can't begin to list all the stuff I've lost due to computers crashing, hard drives failing, software self destructing or not working. etc. Then there's those that say save it to disk or whatever, that way you can always get it back... How many folks have a computer with an operational 5 1/4" drive? Hell, my newest computer doesn't have a 3" drive either. and you know, even if it had either, the software to drive those isn't functional with the latest operating system, so you couldn't access the data anyways. I have several old "saved" computers that "may" still have stuff on them, that I wish I had printed out and saved hard copy... Just in case some day that material/data can be retrieved. And I still have a box full of VHS tapes of the kids growing up and don't have a VHS player anymore... do they still make them? I could pay some business to copy them over to DVD, but what happens when they're antique? Or get scratched, or... well, guess you probably catch my drift. Yeah, paper takes a little longer, and isn't "fashionable", but unless your location experiences and act of nature, it'll always be there if you need to look something up. I use a computer, but I don't trust them.

Many of the programs are web based and we don't have to save the data. Unless of course the company goes out of business, then all bets are off.