Customer Success Story - Porter Ranch
When Penny Jo (PJ) Porter returned home to help with the family ranch near Stanford, Montana, she became the fourth generation of cattle raisers on the ranch.
Porter Ranch raises commercial Black Angus, Black Baldies (Angus/Hereford crosses), a small herd of registered Herefords, Corriente roping cattle and a few Longhorns. Having reduced their herd a couple of years ago because of a hay shortage in their area, the ranch is now trying to build back to the 400 cow/calf pairs they try to maintain in the herd.
PJ says, "Before I came back home to help out with the ranch, my parents kept mostly handwritten records and very limited spreadsheets. I started out using Excel spreadsheets until I found CattleMax. CattleMax has been a lifesaver, tremendously improving my efficiency and accuracy. I can simply open the program, click a few places and find anything quickly! "
PJ started with CattleMax by using the 30-day free trial and most of the things for which she was looking in a record keeping program were there. The ability to keep track of sires, dams and pasture locations, the weaning data, sale dates, the AI/bull breeding features impressed her. "I love the reports, and especially the Customizable Lists (reports), the ability to use Access directly if needed Ð that is all awesome!"
CattleMax has benefitted Porter Ranch (and especially PJ) in several ways. "I can answer any question for my Dad at anytime with the click of a mouse - even from 5 years ago!" she comments. "The CattleMax program has helped us with a good culling program in the fall because we can look quickly at birth weight and weaning weight data for the offspring of bulls and cows," PJ says. And the cattle quality on Porter Ranch has improved due to that ability to keep track of birth/weaning weights and then deciding which sires and dams to cull because they don't produce what is expected each year. The ability to better manage pastures due to being able to track numbers and dates of cattle in and out has also been a big help.
PJ's suggestion for those who might be considering CattleMax as their record keeping solution: "It might seem like a lot of work and a lot to learn, but CattleMax is very user friendly and very easy to learn and use. It works well for beginners and very well for someone who is an advanced user. You will be surprised at how much you will enjoy having your records right at your fingertips without searching through countless stacks of paper! I love it!"
