We sold a few calves this past week. I was inputting the calves info in to my spreadsheet and though I might share how I do it for a very basic operation. Its not the best way for every one but might spur an idea for your own operation or save learning it the hard way (like I did). I just use excel because I am comfortable with it and its totally customizable.
As a general layout I start with a tab for each property. Tab(1) may say The Farm, (2) Joe's Place, (3) Creek Pasture, etc. Each tab will have columns starting left to right with the cows number, the calfs #, calf description (bwb, bws, rwh), the sire(s), a description of the cow, a couple blanks for notes, and lastly, the date the calf was born on the far right.
The next tab after the individual properties is a bull tab with the bulls, past and present. It will have their info and a code for each bull. The first Angus was A1, 2nd A2, Hereford is H1, H2, H3.
Next is a total cow tab with every cow in production listed top to bottom in rows. It will have her dam, sire, dob and description. After that will start years running left to right in columns. This is the important part for me. Every calf gets a block under that year. You start at the left and find the row for cow number 1. Slide to the right until your hit he column for 2022. It will have the mo/yr the calf was born with the sire code. I am working on the color coding on that square. I use to do blue for bulls and pink for heifers because I liked tracking the males and females. This year I have started color coding the squares off of lb/d of gain. I may end up with a hybrid where text is one and box color is another. Each calf gets a note that basically says exact dob, date sold, weight, desc, lbs/d of gain.
Two things very important to me, in that tab, is that I can quickly scan cows and see if they are breeding back in a reasonable time, even if they are not synced up. The second is the lbs per day. Its a little slow right now because it is in notes, which is the reason for color coding.
This very basic spreadsheet has come in very handy when it comes to culling cows and gauging performance. I have had issues with cows have bad bags later in life or feet or what ever and I have been able to track back and hit their offspring if any were kept. I have also kept heifers that were maybe not the most eye appealing but had a history of producing large gains. Obviously age plays a big role also when we go in to droughts. A couple years back every thing over 10 yrs old went. No questions asked. One of the biggest things I have seen is the improvements in weaning weights. We were holding calves 7 and 8 months to get to weights we hit at 6 mo now.
You still have to go in to the field and apply things like size of the cow, conditions, etc. I drop in as many notes as possible so when I have to look back I have some thing to work from. Im not a person that lives and dies by these numbers, but coming from an operation where every thing was done off the eye, I do find peace in in culling, buying bulls, retaining heifers, etc when I have some data to accompany those decisions. This basic sheet was used to justify some spending to the guy I work for and are... slowly lol... being used to make some changes in the way my family operates, also.
There are some other tabs for heifers, annual expenses, and other things I track but the others are the main ones.
I put this spreadsheet in the same category as expenses. Expenses with out performance and vice versa is only half the story, IMO.
I would also like to hear any things yall chart that yall have found helpful.
As a general layout I start with a tab for each property. Tab(1) may say The Farm, (2) Joe's Place, (3) Creek Pasture, etc. Each tab will have columns starting left to right with the cows number, the calfs #, calf description (bwb, bws, rwh), the sire(s), a description of the cow, a couple blanks for notes, and lastly, the date the calf was born on the far right.
The next tab after the individual properties is a bull tab with the bulls, past and present. It will have their info and a code for each bull. The first Angus was A1, 2nd A2, Hereford is H1, H2, H3.
Next is a total cow tab with every cow in production listed top to bottom in rows. It will have her dam, sire, dob and description. After that will start years running left to right in columns. This is the important part for me. Every calf gets a block under that year. You start at the left and find the row for cow number 1. Slide to the right until your hit he column for 2022. It will have the mo/yr the calf was born with the sire code. I am working on the color coding on that square. I use to do blue for bulls and pink for heifers because I liked tracking the males and females. This year I have started color coding the squares off of lb/d of gain. I may end up with a hybrid where text is one and box color is another. Each calf gets a note that basically says exact dob, date sold, weight, desc, lbs/d of gain.
Two things very important to me, in that tab, is that I can quickly scan cows and see if they are breeding back in a reasonable time, even if they are not synced up. The second is the lbs per day. Its a little slow right now because it is in notes, which is the reason for color coding.
This very basic spreadsheet has come in very handy when it comes to culling cows and gauging performance. I have had issues with cows have bad bags later in life or feet or what ever and I have been able to track back and hit their offspring if any were kept. I have also kept heifers that were maybe not the most eye appealing but had a history of producing large gains. Obviously age plays a big role also when we go in to droughts. A couple years back every thing over 10 yrs old went. No questions asked. One of the biggest things I have seen is the improvements in weaning weights. We were holding calves 7 and 8 months to get to weights we hit at 6 mo now.
You still have to go in to the field and apply things like size of the cow, conditions, etc. I drop in as many notes as possible so when I have to look back I have some thing to work from. Im not a person that lives and dies by these numbers, but coming from an operation where every thing was done off the eye, I do find peace in in culling, buying bulls, retaining heifers, etc when I have some data to accompany those decisions. This basic sheet was used to justify some spending to the guy I work for and are... slowly lol... being used to make some changes in the way my family operates, also.
There are some other tabs for heifers, annual expenses, and other things I track but the others are the main ones.
I put this spreadsheet in the same category as expenses. Expenses with out performance and vice versa is only half the story, IMO.
I would also like to hear any things yall chart that yall have found helpful.
