Oran Buckner started his own cattle herd in 1975, began using a polled Beefmaster bull in 1976 and loved the results. Buckner's Rocking Lazy B Ranch, home of Buckner Polled Beefmasters, is located in central Texas about 45 miles east of Waco in southern Limestone County.

"From that beginning, the ranch now has 85 polled Beefmasters in their herd. Oran says he liked to keep detailed records on his cattle and did so for a long time with notebooks, pen and pencil. In 2005, I attended the Beef Cattle Short Course at Texas A&M, learned about CattleMax and shortly afterward I purchased and began using CattleMax and things haven't been the same since," Oran says.

"We are 100% registered polled, a Lifetime member of Beefmaster Breeders United and a Merit Breeder," he continues. Being designated a Merit Breeder by BBU means we supply purchasers with EPDs on our cattle and the cattle have been evaluated by a third party (the BBU field staff). When we began using CattleMax, it made all that record keeping much easier and getting the information in front of potential buyers is a snap!

Oran says he learned, after a time, to begin his calf brand numbers with the year digit, i.e. 8/23, 9/01, etc. to easily arrange animals in CattleMax reports so they'll be grouped by birth date. He uses the Pasture Detail Report/Cattle Inventory by Pasture report to carry with him when he goes out to check cattle in a pasture.

"I use the Sale Catalog feature of CattleMax to print and/or email to potential customers. Also, I like the ability to print an invoice for buyers," Oran says.

He likes CattleMax so well he regularly recommends the software to other members of BBU and to neighbors who are in the cattle business. "CattleMax is so easy to use and draw information from, it has really helped in managing my cattle business," Oran comments.

Oran invites everyone to visit his website: http://www.bucknerpolledbeefmasters.info to find out more about his operation. When you visit the site, you'll see that Oran believes "Polled is Beautiful" and "Polled is by intent, not by accident."