To locate “apps,” run a search in your app store in your particular interest area, such as “beef cattle” or “agriculture.” Many options will be listed. Unfortunately, many of these apps will be for countries on the metric system, but with some quick math formulas, you can have the measurements in a more familiar classification.

Grazing

Grazing is a common practice among cattle producers, and a search for “grazing calculator” yields several options.

A particularly useful application that typically comes up in the top three allows the producer to estimate the days in the paddock, approximately where to place fences for optimal paddock and forage utilization, dry matter per cow per day and the average pasture cover of the paddock.

This app also permits the producer to change measurements from metric to the U.S. system of measurement, share the results via email or a text message, and add notes to the shared information.

Searching down the “grazing calculator” list brings us to a forage budgeting application that allows producers to gauge the amount of forage needed to feed during the winter. This app is designed for producers in the United Kingdom but can be converted with some pencil-to-paper calculations.

Knowing stocking rate is an important tool for graziers. The “grazing calculator” gives cattlemen the option to choose a paddock, enter the amount of days you wish to graze each paddock, the forage height prior to grazing and the desired residue at the end of the grazing period, and then determines the stocking rate for individual paddocks.

Herd health

Another area we all struggle with is herd health. A search for “beef cattle” brings up some varied choices ranging from body condition scoring to A.I. calculators to an all-encompassing herd management program where information can be entered and recalled in real-time. Some search term refinement will be needed to reach certain topics.

BCS

There are a few apps to monitor body condition scoring, but the easiest one pops up in the top two for the “beef cattle bcs” search. The University of Nebraska – Lincoln has created an app that teaches users what body condition scoring is along with how to identify what an individual animal rates on the body condition scoring scale.

This application allows producers to take a photo of the individual cow, look up older images of the same animal to make comparisons and to identify said animal by eartag number and pasture location.

Repro

There is an app that aids in producer decision-making whether it is more economic to use A.I. or a natural service. This application program takes into account estrous synchronization, calving season, calf uniformity and desired heavier weaning weights to create a budget for determining the gain or loss per cow if A.I. or natural service is used for breeding.

Searching “cow calf” yields an app that permits for real-time data entry of dam and sire tracking, calf identification, birth weight, pregnancy check data and maternal data. This application program also has the ability to track weaning information, such as weaning weight and date, for individual calves.

Herd management

A total herd management tool comes when you search for “herd management” or “mobile rancher.” This application allows herd managers to recall vital records for individual animals, does not require a network connection, and information can be exported to a program for a laptop or desktop computer.

Records for the individual animal include tracking heat cycles, A.I. or natural service dates, pregnancy check and calving dates and some health treatments, such as medications and illness and veterinarian visits.

Record-keeping

Another search under the category of “beef cattle” gives us a calendar app which tracks dates for first-calf due date, when to pull bulls from the cow group, when to test semen and sends you a reminder when the oldest calf is 205 days old. Producers can also share these important calendar dates with employees to keep all team members coordinated.

Tracking expenses and farm receipts can be a time-consuming task when producers are in the thick of calving season; however, by searching “farm and ranch record-keeping,” a program emerges that gives the opportunity to input expenses, receipts, divide data by enterprise and run individual reports. The records generated through this application can be directly imported into QuickBooks.

Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word and Quicken can also be downloaded to create extremely personalized financial records, herd health records, grazing records and breeding information. The advantages to using some of these mobile applications is real-time data entry, the easy accessibility of those records, the calculation formulas are already present in the program – and simply the straightforwardness of the application.

Markets

Monitoring cattle markets is another valuable tool to cattlemen, and a quick search containing “cattle market” populates a list of various apps. The Cattle Market Mobile application is advantageous to monitor cattle market prices around the U.S. This program shows market reports generated by the USDA in the areas of feeder steers, bulls and heifers, as well as slaughter cows and bulls. Regrettably, the monitoring program does not cover all states.

Some of these applications are free, and some carry a fee; always check before downloading and be sure to conduct some research on the usefulness of the program before downloading.  

• Samantha M. Graf

• Livestock Extension Educator
• University of Idaho, Canyon County