EIGHT WAYS THE RIGHT CATTLE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE CAN WORK FOR YOU

Finding the right cattle management software can be intimidating.

You don’t want to invest in a tool that wouldn’t pay off in the long run. Conversely, investing in the right tool can be the difference between breaking even and turning a profit. 

Here are key features cattle producers should look for in a management software:

1. Precision feeding

We’ve all been there. You get in the payloader or skid steer and you’re halfway through loading. You can’t remember for the life of you if you already loaded your distillers grains. But you proceed to add it to your mixer anyway, knowing there’s a 50/50 chance you doubled the amount needed.

Performance Beef tracks down to the pound as you’re loading and feeding. It also prompts you to move to the next ingredient, saving you from those small but frustrating mistakes that add up over time. 

From a customer: “We’re no longer throwing away feed and other costs. With Performance Beef every dollar is captured and accurate. Previously we were guesstimating based on a rough estimate of head in a pen. Now we know exactly what is in a pen, how they’re getting fed and are able to accurately capture all associated costs.” – Jordan Gall, Nebraska cattle feeder

2. Herd health and performance capabilities

Tracking cattle health and performance usually involves some combination of handwritten notes, group chats and relying on memory. Performance Beef offers a centralized place where you can easily find individual animal health and performance records. The platform integrates with EID tags to simplify and track processing data in real time.

From a customer: “We can correlate a visual tag with an EID tag. That speeds up processing because you don’t have to type that visual tag in; you just scan your EID tag and you’re done. We can identify if an animal has been treated multiple times already and make decisions based on that.” – Kenny Hofer, Alberta Canada cattle feeder

3. Accurate closeouts and breakevens

Find a software that doesn’t just track your data, but puts it to work for you. All those numbers don’t do any good unless you can make sense of them. The data you capture within Performance Beef makes it easy to generate accurate closeouts and breakevens within seconds.

From a customer: “It’s more than a feeding program. It helps with billing, record keeping, health records and performance analysis. Our cost of gain when custom feeding is more accurate. I also feel more confident that my projections are accurate when purchasing cattle thanks to the software’s ability to summarize data from past closeouts.” – Luke Kovarik, Nebraska cattle feeder

4. Easy and professional billing

Invoicing doesn’t have to be a game of hide and seek with your notes. Performance Beef combines feeding and input costs to create a professional, accurate invoice at the touch of a button. 

From a customer: “I have the ability to select a group, an owner and a date range, and it generates an invoice for me. My billing, compared to my neighbor’s, takes half a day at most, while his takes two days.” – Ryan Slenders, Alberta Canada custom feeder

5. Digitized batch sheets

Printed batch sheets are tedious and inflexible. The right tool will allow you or your nutritionist to update rations on the fly from your iPad or iPhone.

From a customer: “Whenever someone has a ration change, I can change it from my phone from anywhere. It’s really convenient and more accurate. You have less chance of a mistake or human error.” – Jim Hollenback, Oklahoma cattle nutritionist

6. Easy access for your team

Your family and hired hands should automatically have access to your management platform, whether they feed daily for you or just on occasion. Performance Beef makes that possible. You can also give your veterinarian and nutritionist limited or full access to your account, so they can see what’s going on, update your rations and provide advice from anywhere.

From a customer: “Usually once every day or two, dad would call me and say, “Hey, can you change this ration or this load for me?” So in between my college classes I’d make some adjustments and I’d get it ready for him. Even though I wasn’t home, I was able to still be involved from a long ways away.” – Tyler Haun, South Dakota cattle feeder

7. All your data in one place, accessible from anywhere

There is a lot of information floating around a cattle operation, often spread across different notebooks, group chats and spreadsheets. Performance Beef is your one-stop shop for feeding, expense, inventory, health and performance data. 

From a customer: ““Performance Beef made generating accurate closeouts, capturing feed and recording bunk scores easy. Now we find lots of ways to use Performance Beef, including adding other costs, tracking animals that have been doctored, evaluating re-treats, and charging animals at the chute for ear tags and every cc of product used.” – Carson Guenzi, Colorado cattle feeder

8. Outstanding customer support

Nothing is more frustrating than running into an issue or question that prevents you from getting the job done. Performance Beef has real people with real livestock experience, ready to answer your questions when you need it most. You can also find how-to videos and answers to frequently asked questions on the support page.

From a customer: “We love the customer service. We love that it’s an American made program. We appreciate that a lot of the customer service reps have livestock of their own and use the program.” – Sarah, Kansas cattle feeder

Explore the app for yourself or request a demo with a real person.

Already a Performance Beef customer who’s curious how you can use more of these features on your operation? Call or book a meeting with your Customer Success Manager.