Comments on: Sheep Flock Management Software http://colliefarm.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/sheep-flock-management-software/ Daily chronicles of the farm and the collies (Border Collies, that is) Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:24:37 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: workingcollies http://colliefarm.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/sheep-flock-management-software/#comment-729 workingcollies Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:02:40 +0000 http://colliefarm.wordpress.com/?p=353#comment-729 Hi Debbie! Whoo, 38 does, congratulations, sounds like a lot of work and fun! <a href="http://colliefarm.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/sheep-software-ive-made-my-choice/" rel="nofollow">Here is my post on the software I picked </a>(Ranch Manager). I love it and use it all the time. Being able to note things on the Palm pilot in the field is invaluable, as well as looking up stuff when I'm out there, like parentage and due dates. My Palm does better in the rain than a paper notebook would, and saves me the step of transferring info later. And having breeding records organized and due dates auto-calculated is great. It does 60 and 120 day adjusted weight calcs, which will be valuable to you if you are breeding for meat production. It also does a pretty nice job of printing scrapie inventory records, if you need that (and they have promised to work on some improvements I requested, based on the reports our state vet requires). I also really appreciate their pedigree analyzer, which will highlight in red areas where inbreeding would occur, given a ewe/ram combo. Our pedigrees just have ear tag #s (not like some show breeds of animals where they all have fancy, memorable names); so it's nearly impossible to read all the numbers and spot it if you have one duplicating too much in a pedigree. The flip side of this is you have to be very careful when entering the data, that you do it consistently- if you have a space in the ear tag # of one record, and none in the other, the software won't be able to detect that it's the same animal. The software has a few bugs I've spotted, it sometimes doesn't synch mating records right when I return to my PC and I have to fix them by hand (it's recoverable though). And it's a bit naive about predicting breeding if you leave the males in with the females year-round, probably because most people don't do that (I think it should pessimistically assume the females were bred at the earliest possible time). But overall, it's a good software package; and the company is responsive when I email them questions or requests. Of course I can't say how it compares to the other packages out there, other than what their marketing materials tell us. But I can definitely say that having software is great- much, much better than doing it in a notebook or on a spreadsheet or something. Good luck! Michelle Hi Debbie!
Whoo, 38 does, congratulations, sounds like a lot of work and fun! Here is my post on the software I picked (Ranch Manager). I love it and use it all the time. Being able to note things on the Palm pilot in the field is invaluable, as well as looking up stuff when I’m out there, like parentage and due dates. My Palm does better in the rain than a paper notebook would, and saves me the step of transferring info later. And having breeding records organized and due dates auto-calculated is great. It does 60 and 120 day adjusted weight calcs, which will be valuable to you if you are breeding for meat production. It also does a pretty nice job of printing scrapie inventory records, if you need that (and they have promised to work on some improvements I requested, based on the reports our state vet requires).

I also really appreciate their pedigree analyzer, which will highlight in red areas where inbreeding would occur, given a ewe/ram combo. Our pedigrees just have ear tag #s (not like some show breeds of animals where they all have fancy, memorable names); so it’s nearly impossible to read all the numbers and spot it if you have one duplicating too much in a pedigree. The flip side of this is you have to be very careful when entering the data, that you do it consistently- if you have a space in the ear tag # of one record, and none in the other, the software won’t be able to detect that it’s the same animal.

The software has a few bugs I’ve spotted, it sometimes doesn’t synch mating records right when I return to my PC and I have to fix them by hand (it’s recoverable though). And it’s a bit naive about predicting breeding if you leave the males in with the females year-round, probably because most people don’t do that (I think it should pessimistically assume the females were bred at the earliest possible time). But overall, it’s a good software package; and the company is responsive when I email them questions or requests.

Of course I can’t say how it compares to the other packages out there, other than what their marketing materials tell us. But I can definitely say that having software is great- much, much better than doing it in a notebook or on a spreadsheet or something.

Good luck!
Michelle

]]> By: Debbie Scott http://colliefarm.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/sheep-flock-management-software/#comment-728 Debbie Scott Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:32:26 +0000 http://colliefarm.wordpress.com/?p=353#comment-728 Hi Michelle, I came across your post while searching for software. We're just starting a business for meat production of goats. We have 38 females, several pregnant. We jumped in quick and I need some advice on tracking software. I see your post is almost a year old. If you get this, I would appreciate your input on what you decided on and how it has worked for you. Thanks! Hi Michelle, I came across your post while searching for software. We’re just starting a business for meat production of goats. We have 38 females, several pregnant. We jumped in quick and I need some advice on tracking software. I see your post is almost a year old. If you get this, I would appreciate your input on what you decided on and how it has worked for you. Thanks!

]]> By: workingcollies http://colliefarm.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/sheep-flock-management-software/#comment-281 workingcollies Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:00:48 +0000 http://colliefarm.wordpress.com/?p=353#comment-281 Hi Kelly, indeed, it is a hard choice. I did finally decide, I'll write a new post with my rationale. Thanks for the comment! Michelle Hi Kelly, indeed, it is a hard choice. I did finally decide, I’ll write a new post with my rationale. Thanks for the comment!
Michelle

]]> By: Kelly Bruce http://colliefarm.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/sheep-flock-management-software/#comment-280 Kelly Bruce Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:52:26 +0000 http://colliefarm.wordpress.com/?p=353#comment-280 Hi Bud, Im in the same boat as you & recently tried the 30 day free trial for Select Sheepware..Im on XP Pro and found the program very unresponsive...hence Im Still looking. also breeding Hair sheep. Hi Bud,
Im in the same boat as you & recently tried the 30 day free trial for Select Sheepware..Im on XP Pro and found the program very unresponsive…hence Im Still looking. also breeding Hair sheep.

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