Cattlesoft Blog

We always have requests for more training sessions and other ways for us to get together. We wanted to offer this opportunity to as many of you as possible, and we thought the best way to do that was with an online workshop.

To get things started this month, Penny is hosting two workshops next Tuesday, October 21st. These first two workshops will both cover a general overview of CattleMax CS, and leave plenty of time to answer your questions.

It should be a big help for anyone who is still looking at the trial version, just purchased CattleMax, or converting from an older version and needing help learning CattleMax CS.

You can register for the 10am CST morning workshop, or register for the 7pm CST evening workshop.

We hope you’ll join us!

Over the past ten years, we have heard from so many producers who have experienced a computer crash, fire or other disaster that destroyed years of cattle records. Unfortunately, they had not kept good backups of their records. They either didn’t make them at all, just stored them on their hard drive, or had kept them on CDs or disks in a drawer next to their computer.

This meant they had lost not just their current working file, but years of historical information they could never retrieve—a situation we want to help you avoid. We know how important it is for you to always have access to your cattle records, and how lost you might be if they disappeared. We have always suggested for you to backup your records often, and store these backups in a separate location from your computer.

This fall, we decided to help you out even more. We created the CattleMax Online Backup Service, based on 13 years of proven technology from Amazon.com.

Now, when you backup your CattleMax herd file, there will be an option for “Online”. This system guarantees your records are safe and secure, accessible from any computer with CattleMax and an Internet connection, and protected from any disaster.

Learn more about the CattleMax Online Backup Service, including all the benefits it offers, or order your subscription to keep your records safe, secure and accessible.

If you have ever wanted to “get under the hood” and work directly with your CattleMax records, the CattleMax Access Companion is exactly what you have been waiting for.  Sometimes it’s as simple as tweaking a report created in the Report Wizard… other times it’s incorporating data into a complex accounting system.  Either way, you now have this flexibility with CattleMax and the CattleMax Access Companion.  The Companion can be found on the Reports tab of the CattleMax CS ribbon bar.

We spent some time updating our Microsoft Access Resources page over on the CattleMax website. This list contains links to books, software, and communities where beginners and pros can learn more about using Microsoft Access.

If anyone is currently using the CattleMax Accesss Companion and has a story they would like to share, let us know over at the Power Users forum.

VMWare just released VMWare Fusion 2.0 for the Mac, so I wanted to take the time to let everyone who is currently using a Mac or considering a Mac learn how you can use CattleMax.

Penny and I moved over to MacBook Pro laptops earlier this year and have been very pleased.  Of course, CattleMax uses Microsoft Access 2007 technology so we still needed Windows.

We get a lot of questions from customers who aren’t sure if they can use CattleMax on a Mac, so we wanted to mention the available options, and share what we have found to work best.

I evaluated VMWare Fusion and Parallels and found the best performance with VMWare Fusion.

Setup is fast and easy with the step-by-step wizards.  Several retailers even sell VMWare pre-installed when you by a new computer.  Using VMWare is easy and requires no rebooting to use - just open the application and click the Run button.  The speed and performance are great and we haven’t come across any compatibility issues with CattleMax during the past six months.

Is anyone else using CattleMax on their Macs?  If so, let us know.

CattleMax on VMWare Fusion

When Penny and I first met, everyone wondered how we would turn out - her degree in Agriculture,  mine in Information Technology & Business.  The question was answered during our senior year at Texas A&M University when we combined our skills and created a cattle database for her family to manage their cattle.  Cattle and technology - it just made sense to us even though it didn’t to many others.  Even to this day when I attend conferences outside of agriculture, people are surprised when I say “cattle software”.

As Cattlesoft grew, our customer service volume increased to where we needed to hire more help.  There aren’t too many people out there who understand cattle production and also can troubleshoot computer software, so this makes finding and training customer service representatives challenging, especially for a company that touts its exceptional customer service.

Last Summer, we had a predicament on our hands - most of our customer service reps were graduating from Texas A&M and moving on.  We asked ourselves “How are we going to find several customer service reps and have them trained on CattleMax for the Fall?”

It was one evening when we were out checking cows that we came up with the idea of mentioning the job listings in our customer newsletter.  Within one week had over 50 applicants for 3 positions.

After many great interviews, we hired Ken, Nathan, and Lana. Not only were they familiar with CattleMax having used it for years, but they also understand what it’s like to be on the other end of the phone.

That’s not the kind of thing you can train for, it has to be experienced.

Greetings

We wanted to let everyone know about the new CattleMax CS 4200 Update that we released yesterday.

As ranches who have used previous CattleMax versions know, the new CattleMax CS version includes a new reporting system, known as “Customizable Lists”, which addressed feedback from many customers who were seeking a way to customize reports without the need to use the Report Wizard to make custom reports.  This new style works great for many because producers could dynamically resize the columns, add and remove their own columns, and change formatting styles.

However, one of the downsides of this new reporting is that it lacks certain functionality of the reports in the CattleMax 2006 version.  We came to the conclusion that both options were needed in CattleMax CS so that you have the right tool for the right job - sometimes we want to customize and sometimes we just want it to print.
So, a summary of reporting options in CattleMax CS 4.2.4200 and later

• Customizable Lists - basic lists where you can change columns and formatting
• Preset Reports - based on CattleMax 2006 reports, advanced functionality, nicer looks, columns can’t be customized
• Report Wizard - Located in the Access Companion, this lets you create your own reports from scratch, including selecting columns, sorts, and formatting.  You can look at it as Customizable Lists’s big brother.  Microsoft Access is not required for this part of the Access Companion.
• Microsoft Access - The MS Access Companion, accessible from the Reports tab in CattleMax, lets those familiar with MS Access work with their own reports and queries.

If you are a new customer or not as tech savvy, the Preset Reports and Customizable Lists are a quick and easy way to get the information you need.
Other significant updates/changes in this update:

• Enhanced Electronic ID Tag list import from files, vendors, and readers
• Improved international date formatting
• Export button now on customizable lists
• New breed interfaces for Red Angus, Gelbvieh, Maine-Anjou, and Yak
• Updated breed interface for Brangus
• Easier backing up and restoring of custom reports and queries in Access Companion

Currently using CattleMax CS?  Download the update and let us know what you think

Thanks

Terrell & Penny Miller and the Cattlesoft Team

We are pleased to have our CattleMax training videos now online. The videos, ranging from 3 to 5 minutes in length, discuss various areas of the software. Topics include popular records and features such as the Main Screen, Herd Update (for recording the same records for a group of cattle) as well as equipment and industry interfaces available in the CattleMax software.

CattleMax customers and ranches considering CattleMax for their record keeping needs can benefit by watching the videos to gain a better understanding of how CattleMax works and can benefit you.

Watch them at http://www.cattlemax.com/videos

We just wrapped up our 9th Beef Cattle Short Course last week.  Congratulations to the TAMU Animal Science Dept for a great job organizing the event. With over 1500 attendees, this year’s Short Course was the most attended ever.

On Sunday evening before the Short Course, customers came to the CattleMax Workshop and gained a more hands-on understanding of CattleMax CS, the newest version of our CattleMax software. There were great questions and we appreciate the customers who took time to attend our workshop.

The Wednesday morning Business Management session at the Short Course was well attended. I enjoyed talking with everyone and highlighting the importance of good record keeping, especially during the current time of high input costs. For those interested in the article I referred to during my presentation, you can download a PDF from http://agecoext.tamu.edu/resources/animal-id/information/articles.html.

After the completion of the Short Course activities on Wednesday, some familiar friends and new faces attended our afternoon CattleMax workshop. We received good questions at this workshop as well, and appreciate everyone attending and participating.

Thanks again to everyone for another great year.

Once again, we’ll be hosting two workshops during the upcoming Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course in College Station, Texas.  Both workshops are free and open to anyone, so bring any friends or company you might have tagging along for the weekend with you.

For those not familiar with the Beef Cattle Short Course, it is a 2.5 day course covering a wide variety of cattle management topics. Highlights of this year’s seminar include sessions on responding to rising input costs, forage and nutrition management and cattle handling demonstrations. For a complete schedule and registration information, visit http://animalscience.tamu.edu/bcsc.

Workshop 1: Sunday, August 3rd at 5:00pm
We’ll meet at the Holiday Inn Express on University Drive at 5 pm for a hands-on, interactive workshop with customers who are familiar with the software or looking to learn more about the advanced features. We’ll be working at a faster pace, so you’re encouraged to bring a laptop to work along as we go, and lots of questions for us.

Workshop 2: Wednesday, August 6th a 12:30pm
Hang around a bit on Wednesday after the conclusion of the seminars, and join us in MSC Room 292 at 12:30 pm, and we’ll start out with a basic introduction to the software, and then work through any questions you may have. If you’re just getting started with CattleMax, or maybe even still evaluating your record keeping options, this workshop is for you.

A complimentary light meal will be provided at both sessions.

Both workshops are free and no need to RSVP - be sure to attend to meet us in person and to also see CattleMax in action!

TAMU Beef Cattle Short Course

If you are attending the Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course, you will not want to miss the Beef Cattle Business Management Workshop on Wednesday morning being presented by Dr Larry Falconer. As the only business-oriented workshop at the Short Course, this session provides a great opportunity to build your foundation of decision making from a business view.

For the past 9 years, we have spoken on current topics related to cattle record keeping.  This year, we will focus on creating a good record keeping system to generate managerial information for decision making to help operate during times of high input costs.

Again this year, several of the CPAs from Seidel, Schroeder & Company, an accounting firm that specializes in farm & ranch accounting,  will be proving updates on tax and accounting information.  They are always entertaining and very informative - we learn something new from them every year!

Immediately following this session, we will be holding a hands-on CattleMax training workshop and Q&A.   We will begin serving light snacks immediately and start the session at 12:30 so that those in other sessions have time to make it over.