Nestled in the heart of South Dakota, Cedar Valley Ranch re-entered the cattle business in 2007, with a new way of keeping cattle records and a new mindset.

Sara Barnes grew up on her family’s cattle ranch, and has been in the business all her life. She says they “took a break” for a few years, and are now excited about starting over and rebuilding their herd from the bottom up.

With a little more than 100 head of commercial cattle now, they are selling steer calves to feeders and keeping their own replacement heifers when they have large enough heifer crops to choose from.

“We’re basically herd building right now, starting from scratch,” she says, “We have a few registered black Angus, and eventually plan to sell bull calves as well when the genetics are there.”

Barnes says when they decided to get back in the cattle business, she did a great deal of searching to find a record keeping system.

“I looked and looked and looked,” she says, “and kept asking myself if I really wanted to spend the money.”

Cedar Valley’s investment has paid off, though.

“In previous years, we used spreadsheets. Any time I wanted to look up previous information, I had to dig through the spreadsheets to find what I was looking for,” Barnes says.

“I really like how I can now go in [to CattleMax] and see each cow, with a list of her calves’ birth weights, weaning weights, and other information, rather than going back through spreadsheets year by year to find all of the information.”

She says being able to view all of this information right on the Offspring tab for each cow has helped them make culling decisions more quickly.

“We’re not just selling cows because they’re old anymore. We’re using the information,” Barnes says.

When a recent blizzard blew across Cedar Valley Ranch, Barnes was able to simply go into CattleMax, and view a pasture report to quickly get a head count on which calves had been entered, and even easily find cattle that had mistakenly been placed in the wrong pasture.

“It’s helpful to look at each pasture, and know where cattle are located at all times,” she says.

Barnes says she has enjoyed utilizing the wide range of support options she has with CattleMax.

“I’ve used all of them already! I love it. When I send an email in, I get one back with the answer I need. I really like the online workshops. I sign up for one thinking I will get an answer to one thing, and always come back with the answer to something else,” she says, “There is really good [customer] support.”

Barnes says keeping detailed records will be Cedar Valley’s core strategy.

“I think the more detailed records you keep, with more cattle information, the better you can manage your herd and find your best producers,” she says.

“On sheets of paper, I only have a two to three inch spot to write information for each cow and calf. I can keep more details in CattleMax to document everything that has happened. I am trying to keep a lot of useful information about each cow, like bag type, body type, temperament and maternal instincts. That way, I can go back and see those comments across the years, and know which cows I want to keep replacements from.”

However, Barnes will be the first to admit that the initial startup was not easy. She said it took a while to get Cedar Valley’s entire herd entered into CattleMax, and there were many times she had to go back and correct record mistakes, but in all, it was not a bad experience, and she has learned a great deal about her record keeping.

“The more I work with it, the more I like it,” Barnes says.

For more information on Cedar Valley Ranch, you can send inquiries to cedarvalleysd(at)yahoo(dot)com.