Showcattle.com Forum · General

ranchers, I'm looking for ideas for keeping track of small herd. I use an Excel spreadsheet just to note calving dates. I'd like to include expenses and income for tax also. What kind of system do you use and what do you like/dislike?

Yea I use my brain,Works great.

Just look at "my balance" you will see everything there.

thanks Donegalfarmer,
my brain can't keep track for more than a couple of years, so I'm looking for ideas to track a small, real-world herd. Thought maybe some of you who are ranchers, agg-students or teachers might have some spreadsheets or ledgers.

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Last edited by Kubio on 10/1/2014 8:51:34 PM

I still use paper, so the excel spreadsheet is way ahead of me. There are quite few apps for iPad/iPhone that I have looked at but none seemed like they were what I was looking for. So I stick with my notebooks and a pen.

a lot of people (including me) use a really small note book that you can put in your back pocket. most have tables for all your calves like there dams and sires, numbers, date of calving, etc. and room for other stuff too.
and most have a little pen in the side. iPhones also work just as good, you can just use notes if that's easiest.

but that's just what I do.

Carmen

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Last edited by Sowden Ranch on 10/3/2014 2:03:47 AM

thanks for sharing cwfeeders and Carmen. All the above is what I'm using too, I hope to combine the notes and photos in the spreadsheet.

I'm thinking a page (worksheet) for each animal over 2 years with title: eartag & description, then add a line for each event: date & description.

example

Eartag #1 Description: Brahma-X cow, black
date - bought, where, age, weight, bred 5mos, price
date - calf1 born, sex, eartag, notes, photo
date - shots, wormer
date - calf1 sold, where, weight, price

I almost got it, but for some reason I think I need a photo of each calf and that takes up about 5 lines.
Kubio