Brent and Margie Carter | Performance Livestock Analytics

Driving success with veterinary expertise AND precision technology

What’s Brent and Margie Carter’s formula for success in their cattle operation? An accomplished large animal veterinarian, a visionary cattle producer, unwavering dedication and a little help from precision technology.

Brent and Margie have backgrounded cattle in Fayetteville, Tennessee, since 1993. Margie, a large animal veterinarian and senior partner at Fayetteville Animal Clinic, has played a strong role in ensuring animal health remains a constant focus in their operation. Brent shares this commitment.

“Animal health has been a top priority for us. It is incumbent upon us as farmers and ranchers to raise good, healthy animals. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it benefits us, it pays dividends, the more that we can stay on top of our health,” Brent says.

Hands-on from anywhere

The Carters retain ownership of their cattle from the time they leave their operation all the way to slaughter. They wanted a more accurate treatment record-keeping system so they could make better decisions about which animals would perform best in their program.

After hearing about Performance Beef through her veterinarian network, Margie thought she and Brent should try it. The program continues to exceed their expectations.

“Performance Beef helps us keep records of what’s been treated multiple times and shows us where to throw up the flag. Maybe cattle that we don’t want to send all the way through our program, or which should go to market sooner. It has been a tremendous help with identifying those,” says Brent.

Accessing real-time health data on Performance Beef from anywhere is particularly helpful for Margie, especially when Brent is processing cattle.

“I really like being able to keep up when they work animals. One time I was at work and watching them on the processing app. I knew when they were done working, what mistakes they’d made and where I needed to step in. All of the features on Performance Beef really help me stay up-to-date since I am not on the operation day-to-day. It is really efficient,” Margie says.

Margie Carter comparing EID tags with the automated syc on the Performance Beef iPad.

Although Margie was drawn to the program for the animal health features, it was the effortless feeding capabilities that convinced Brent.

Feeding for the future

Cattle management and feeding falls into Brent’s wheelhouse. He uses a cake feeder and would spend hours every morning writing notecards recording pen groups, head counts and how many pounds to feed.

Losing notecard after notecard, Brent often resorted to estimating feed rations.

“Performance Beef has simplified feeding so much, instead of trying to tweak in the process, you see right off how much is supposed to be fed. It has streamlined our operation quite a bit and made it simpler, easier and more precise,” Brent says.

Performance Beef has been the perfect addition to the Carters’ formula for success. While the dynamic duo can attribute many of their achievements to their love for raising cattle, they are excited about how Performance Beef will continue to benefit the future of their operation.

“We try to stay on the cutting edge of technology as we move forward because we hope at some point, we can hand the operation off to our sons. Keeping an up-to-date operation that uses technology like Performance Beef keeps us hopeful that we will continue just like we are for another 70 years,” says Brent.

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Education

Comparing low-frequency and ultra-high-frequency EID tags for cattle

What's the difference between low-frequency (LF) and ultra-high frequency (UHF) EID tags?

UHF tags can be read from a greater distance and generally offer more opportunity for automation compared to LF tags. Performance Beef’s animal health features are compatible with both tag types to streamline processing and treatment data.

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