What Software Do You Use to Manage Your Herd?

[farmerjan]

Latestarter, I have to agree with you on most everything; Maybe it's the "age or that certain generation" thing coming out. I work with a computer for the milk testing, and how many times has it "taken a notion" at 4 a.m. when there is no one in the office for computer support, etc etc etc. Yes it is nice for the internet, and for things like this, but trust my cattle records to it???? NO WAY JOSE'....Insted of saving it to a disk now you save it to a jump drive...I still have an old one with the "floppy" disk drive and I can still operate in DOS but the younger gen sure can't. My laptop is still Win XP and I haven't wanted to upgrade it for work since I hope to not be doing this very much longer...but when I had a problem and called computer support at our company, the one guy says, I'm not sure I even remember how to do it in XP...And my desktop is so old that a good friend who is a wiz in computers said it just isn't worth trying to add memory etc to upgrade it wasn't designed for the newer versions of windows and that I really need to just get a new one. That's in the not too distant future but not quite yet. I don't like the laptops, too small a screen and I want it on the desk, not something I am going to take everywhere. There are advantages to getting things compiled by the computer, lists sorted and such, but I will still want a hard copy, so there goes the save paper thing. And as babsbag said you can use the web base and save it to a cloud ( my mind just can't wrap around a cloud with all this info floating around ha ha) but what happens when they go out of business or someone hacks into it???? I am not against computers and if I found something that did what I want I ,might use it but I would still have paper copies to use.

 

[NH homesteader]

I'm the same way and I'm only 32. Maybe I was born in the wrong generation but I like to write everything on paper. I can't even use the calendar feature on my phone, it drives me nuts

 

[farmerjan]

I have a flip phone, takes the knocks pretty well, and I can't figure out all the things on it like the calendar. Oh well, good to know there are "old Fashioned" younger generation!!!!

 

[secuono]

I use KinTraks/AnimalBreeder.
Not expensive and free for most older systems.

 

[schmije]

I downloaded kintracks Animal Breeder, and I think it will do most of what I want. The only additional feature I want is a whole farm financial tracking. I see that kintracks will track financials for each individual animal, but I want to include feed, equipment, etc., so I don't need it broken down. Will it do that? I haven't found anything, other than to assign all the finances to a 'dummy' animal.

 

[dejavoodoo114]

Wow. I am really glad I found this thread. I user paper as well. Actually I have a yearly schedule book (planner) that I write everything in, FAMACHA, kidding, vaccines, anthilmenticd etc. The small book goes in my library and will always be there. However, I think I may check out some of these other programs. I will never get rid of the paper copies though. I also like the individual sheets for the animals.

 

[newbiekat]

I use Ranch Mananger (http://www.lionedge.com/products/GoatSoftware.php)

It does it all, one time fee of $150 though, but in my opinion, well worth it.