Beef Cattle Software

I am often asked if I know if there is any computer software specifically written for record keeping in relation to raising beef cattle?

Yes, several!
     But why not get yourself a good spread sheet and/or relational data base and learn to use them. All beef cattle farm and ranch record keeping will fit one or both of these and you will have a better understanding of what is going on because you did it.

     There are several good programs out there and they may be a lot less expensive than the many hours you will spend doing it your self. But the experience you gain implementing your own program will reap a lot of benefits in understanding your operation and produce a flexible system that you can make fit the future changes in your operation.

     My computer hard disk serves as home to about a dozen software programs that cost from less than $100 to almost $1000 each. Most all of them are excellent programs when it comes to the many features built into them. So why would they just be taking up space instead of being used?

     Most any of them will do a good job if you have enough work and resources to maintain a full time office staff. However if you are like me and must do your own record keeping you will find the learning curve too steep for easy use. Most of the programs I have purchased and tried have way too many features (I call them bells and whistles) that most of us do not need. In my opinion too many of them are built by programmers that feel they have to prove their capability to include more features than the last person.

     I'm not a programmer but keep thinking there must be a way to build a good beef cattle software program with all the bells and whistles but put each featue in it's own module and on setup give you a check box option as to which ones you want to use. Those you elect not to use should not show up anywhere as you are using the software and then they would not cause confusion or add to the learning curve.

     In spite of it all I readily admit to being a software junkie and will probably continue spending on any that look promising.