5-22 IAN Angus App

 If you don’t have apps for this and don’t have apps for that, then you are not apt to succeed in life... or at least that’s how it seems.

 I tell you… It seems like there is an app for everything these days. Here’s an example. Cow-calf rancher Barb Downey has found convenient record-keeping at the tips of her fingers with the use of smart phone technology. She uses the Angus Mobile app for her registered herd - which helps her keep up with calving records, performance data and other management tools.  “I hate paper and believe information information is much more readily used when it is in a format that is readily usable and mineable. It is data and when you figure out how to use it it becomes information.”

With just her cell phone and Google Docs - Downey can instantly know feed rations, irrigation use, herd health and cow inventory and movement - information that she later formats into a searchable database for easy access. More conventional forms of record keeping just slow her down. “Everyone who keeps any sort of records knows that you end up with stacks of information that you can take care of in your free time. Then there is the no time like the present mode where we are entering data on the fly.”While certain records are required by law - like water, herbicide and pesticide use - complete and accurate records show accountability - and increase consumer confidence in these products