• Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram

Ogilvie Stock Ranch

grass finished and grain finished beef and lamb

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Our Sires
  • Our Females
  • Shop Our Beef and Lamb
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

Cattle Record Keeping with CattleMax

May 23, 2022

Did you know that we keep detailed records on all of our cattle? You are probably wondering what type of records would need to be kept on cattle?  We use our records as a daily management tool to help us run a productive operation.  There are many different options for cattle record keeping. Some ranchers use paper based records, others use Excel and/or online cattle management program, such as CattleMax.  Similarly, some ranchers keep more details records than others.    

Cattle Record Keeping with CattleMax. #cattleMax #recordkeeping #cattlerecords
Pin Me

Record Keeping History

My passion for cattle record keeping started very early in life.  My grandfather always encouraged me to have an active role on the ranch, from doing chores, prepping bulls for sales, working on cattle records and even helping chose herdsires. From a young age, I helped my mom with the cattle records and I worked at transferring all of our paper records onto a computer into Excel. I will never forget my grandfather smile when he would tell our customers that his granddaughter made the spreadsheet for the sale bulls. My grandfather’s openness to new ideas is one of the reasons our ranch is now using an online cattle management software program.  He encouraged to try new technology and advance our operation as we saw an opportunity. 

CattleMax

Now on our operation, all of our records are inputted on a daily basis into our cattle management software program, CattleMax. CattleMax has an online program that we can access anywhere by using our computer, iPhones and/or iPads for a small monthly fee. We have been using this program for over 10 years and it makes it extremely easy to print reports and/or worksheets while managing our herd. 

Home page of CattleMax.

There is a purebred and a commercial version option in CattleMax.  On our ranch, we have a purebred and commercial herd.  Since with purebred herds there is always more of a record keeping requirement, we decided to also keep detailed records on our commercial herd so that we are managing all of our cattle in the same way. There are very easy to read lists of all the cattle, including by groups.

Active Cows in CattleMax

Cattle Tags

On our ranch, every calf is given a Richie tag with a specific number at birth along with a RFID tag (Radio Frequency Identification tag).  The mother’s number is then engraved on the top of the Richie tag.  The registered calves are numbered numerically, followed by the letter for the year.  This year is “J”.  The commercial calves are also numbered numerically, starting with the year they were born (“21” for 2021) and then their number in sequence. For example, 21-15.

Calf tag from Richie Tags

Our Records

At birth, we keep track of calving difficulties, medications, management notes and birth weights.  The one book on the ranch that we can’t live without is our calf book!  It tracks the calf number, mother (dam), father (sire) and all the other birth details. Needless to say, my 2021 calf book looks like it has been everywhere with me! The information in my calf book is transferred daily into CattleMax. Each calf is added to its corresponding dam, so that they are linked in the program. 

Add Calf in CattleMax

Animals can be easily added individually, by bulk add or by breed association import. Each animal can then be viewed individually in detail.

CattleMax Calf Screen

Throughout the year, we must document which cows are bred to which bulls, vaccination and medications as given, pasture movement details for each animal, yearling weights and many other details. During the summer, we use the pasture lists on a regular basis.

Pasture List in CattleMax

In the fall, we weigh each calf so that we can document how many pounds each cow is raising, details on if the calf is kept over the winter or where it is sold. 

Worksheets and Reporting

There are lots of reports and worksheets available in CattleMax that we use regularly. 

CattleMax Worksheets
Report List in CattleMax

The worksheets and reports can also be customized to your operation needs.

Weaning Worksheet in CattleMax

There is also lots of great online training videos on how to use CattleMax and maximize all its features. It can be used accessible anywhere, on any devise and used by multiple users so that everyone on the ranch can help with the record keeping. 

By using CattleMax,  we can easily see which cows are producing the highest weaning weight, the average calving interval, average birth weights for sires and any other detail that we need to look at while making management decisions.  

Weaning Report in CattleMax

Yearly Record Keeping

At the end of each year, we print a variety of reports and bind them into a book so that we always have a paper copy of each year’s records to refer to.

Now that we have been using CattleMax in our operation, I couldn’t imagine doing all the records manually now. I highly recommend CattleMax for cattle ranchers as a convenient, easy to use management tool to help with decision making on the ranch. 

Filed Under: Cattle, Ranch Life Tagged With: cattlemax, record keeping

Previous
Next

The Links

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Our Sires
  • Our Females
  • Shop Our Beef and Lamb
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

Join Our Newsletter

Follow us

@ogilviestockranch

ogilviestockranch

We are a #familyowned #hereford #cattleranch near #kamloops who direct market #localbeef & lamb. Lets chat at ogilviestockranch@outlook.com.

Ogilvie Stock Ranch
Farm Stand Saturday! We are having our farm stand Farm Stand Saturday! We are having our farm stand again this afternoon between 1-5pm. We will have fresh radishes and some bags of fresh salad greens! We also have beef jerky, pepperoni, ground beef and a variety of other beef products. Looking forward to visiting with you all!
Happy Canada Day! What a wonderful day for celebra Happy Canada Day! What a wonderful day for celebrating our amazing country. We started the day with a beautiful kayak trip around Edith Lake, then we worked in the garden and checked some pastures on our ranch. Plus I had an afternoon meeting with @fencefast_ . I am so excited to soon be sharing more about how we are implementing a new technology on our ranch for record keeping and data collection! How did you celebrate today?
The boys are continuing to work Clover every day n The boys are continuing to work Clover every day now that summer is here. They usually rinse and brush him as it helps to train his hair coat. Then they take him for a walk and practise showing him. I love watching the bond between the boys and Clover, as it just keeps getting stronger.
The countdown is on for haying season. We are in t The countdown is on for haying season. We are in the process of getting the equipment ready and watching the weather forecast on a daily basis. Depending on the weather, we will probably start cutting our first field in about 1-2 weeks. Let’s hear your questions about haying season!
Wow, what gorgeous weather! We had a beautiful and Wow, what gorgeous weather! We had a beautiful and productive weekend. Thank you to everyone who stopped by the farm stand on Saturday. It was great visiting with so many of you. On Sunday, we went for an early morning fishing trip with the boys and then checked some groups of cow/calf pairs. We even got a good hike in while checking cows. This afternoon, the boys worked their steer and their lambs! Ir was a full and fun weekend. How was your weekend?
Load More... Follow on Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2022 · Ogilvie Stock Ranch · Hello You Designs