A newly developed app allows cattle ranchers another option to keep livestock records on their smart phones.

Kansas State University agricultural economics and veterinary medicine staff developed the record-keeping app, CalfDex.

The app is free and was designed for use in the field, even when ranchers do not have cell phone service.

Kansas State University livestock economist Ted Schroeder said CalfDex enables producers to maintain efficient and accurate calving, weaning and treatment records, which helps mitigate the risk of data loss or misplacement that can happen with paper records.

“Our team is eager to provide users with a convenient and easy-to-use modern animal data management tool to keep pace in an ever-changing industry,” Schroeder said. “Considering the growing importance of information exchange in the beef supply chain, there is value in an application that has the ability to store and upload data at the whole-herd and individual animal levels, while also facilitating easy downstream data sharing.”

There are five tabs users can choose to enter data, including calving, processing/vaccination, treatment, weaning and postweaning.

The data is also stored across calving seasons for easy access, and provides for simple downstream data sharing and allows users to protect their information by establishing a unique email address and password.

The app simplifies the data collection process for ranchers, Schroeder noted. CalfDex was developed with the user in mind and is available on both iPhone and Android devices.

“Because it has the capability to track multiple herds and individual animal information, CalfDex is tailored to meet the needs of all sizes of calving operations, from large purebred enterprises to a 4-H or FFA student beginning their first beef breeding project,” Schroeder said.

The project was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program.

For more information on the app, including a description of its functions, click here.

Questions can be sent to CalfDex@ksu.edu.