Nathan Boles, Reran Ranch, Winters, Texas (between Abilene and San Angelo) can’t remember when he wasn’t involved in the cattle business. The small operation tries to maintain 25 mother cows and a bull, and, hopefully, a 100% calf crop each year. Nathan has mostly commercial Brangus cows, a few registered cows and a registered Brangus bull.

“My Dad had cows on his farm from the time I can remember. One of my early jobs was to milk the old Jersey cow who provided milk for our family,” Nathan says. “Another of my jobs as I grew older was to rope (on foot, not a horse), throw and hold the calves as they were worked (we didn’t have any kind of chute). So, I guess you could say I’ve been around and in the cattle business for about 60 years.”

On our farm we also raise wheat, haygrazer and have some areas of coastal for grazing. Nathan was involved in the agricultural chemical business for a number of years and retired from managing a weekly newspaper in 2007.

A few years ago, after buying some registered cows, the cattle operation expanded into raising some of its own replacement heifers and began working to improve weaning and yearling weights of the entire calf crop. Since purchasing CattleMax in 2006, record keeping has moved from a “little black book” in the pickup to the computer.

“CattleMax has enabled me to keep detailed, accurate records of my calves, and consequently, assisting in the culling process, which, I feel, is very important in the performance improvement program,” Boles says.

The reports in CattleMax enable him to print out a report, take the printed report to the chute when he’s working calves and know which calf belongs to which cow. He also uses the Cow-Calf active report to take to the pasture when he checks cows, just to help keep track of how the calves are doing, especially when they are young.

After nearly a year of using CattleMax for record keeping, Nathan was brought onto the CattleMax team as a part-time Customer Service Representative in the fall of 2007.

“Being sold on the program as the best cattle record keeping software available, it’s very satisfying for me to be able to help CattleMax customers with their questions and problems they encounter,” Nathan says.

For more information on the Brangus cattle at Reran Ranch, send Nathan an email at nboles(at)wtxs(dot)net, or you can reach him at 325-754-4889.