Cattlesoft Blog

For the month of December, we already had two online workshops designed for those just getting started with CattleMax CS or still evaluating the trial version to take a guided tour and have an opportunity to ask questions and learn from each other. Both workshops were successful, and our evening workshop boasted the largest attendance yet.

We still have four more opportunities for you to learn with the CattleMax Team through our free online workshops this month.

Next Friday, December 19^th, we’re hosting two workshops on Basic Reporting in CattleMax CS. It’s designed for producers who want to learn about using the reporting features in CattleMax and will give a basic introduction to the different reporting features and how to use them.

Then on Monday, December 22^nd, we’ll have two opportunities for you to learn how to use the extensive AI (Artificial Insemination) and ET (Embryo Transfer) inventory and breeding records in CattleMax CS. We’ll cover everything from entering your first semen or embryo inventory records to using clean-up bulls to reporting your AI success.

View the schedule and register today!

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