Host Lynsey McAnally (00:04):

Angus at Work, a podcast for the profit-minded cattleman. Brought to you by the Angus Beef Bulletin, we have news and information on health, nutrition, marketing, genetics and management. So let’s get to work, shall we?

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Host Lynsey McAnally (00:58):

Welcome to Angus at Work. I'm your host, Lynsey McAnally, and today we're continuing a conversation from a previous episode where we talked about Pasture to Publish and some of the tools available on angus.org.

But today we're going to focus on something that you can really hold in your pocket, which is the new Angus app. I'm happy to welcome one of our regional managers, Andrew Swanson, to the podcast today to give us a little insight on how you can use those tools in your commercial operations. So welcome, Andrew!

Andrew Swanson (01:30):

Thanks, Lynsey. Good to be on and talk to you today!

Host Lynsey McAnally (01:33):

I think a good place to start off ... We're continuing the conversation that we started with Rachel in our latter part of April episode of Angus at Work, where we talked about the tools that are available on the website. [We thought it would good to] get your thoughts on the tools that commercial cattlemen can access over there. So can you talk to us a little bit about what your elevator speech is to commercial cattlemen in encouraging them to go over to angus.org?

Andrew Swanson (02:02):

Lots of cool things on the Angus website. Following the market, looking at either sales that have happened or sales that are going to happen. There's a lot of interest from both seedstock and commercial cattlemen to just follow genetics in the marketplace.

For sure, that's a good reason to go to the website for commercial cattlemen and seedstock suppliers. Also, just genetics from a seedstock standpoint. The EPD searchable tool I think is used pretty heavily amongst the membership. I think it's a great way to see what's out there in the valuation and, of course, you do that through the website.

Host Lynsey McAnally (02:45):

It's a pretty cool deal to be able to go over and look at what is available out there in the market. Look at those sale books from the operations that do have them available on angus.org. I use that calendar feature over on the website pretty frequently to figure out what's going on in my area and what events I might like to attend as far as sales or even other things that are happening out there.

But let's jump over into the app real quick because, like I said, the new facelift over on angus.org definitely put a lot of work into making that look good and function well on a mobile device. The app, which also is pretty new here recently, has gotten another update that is optimized for your mobile device. I know more and more ... I'm sure I'm not the only one that's on the road out and about.

That mobile app in your pocket is pretty valuable. Can we talk a little bit about what you would say to producers who maybe haven't accessed that app previously?

Andrew Swanson (03:50):

Yeah, for sure. If you have any interest in Angus cattle, in genetics, anything that's going on in the Angus world, you've got to have the new Angus mobile app. It's updated from our old app. I don't know how old that was, but been around for quite a few years and we gave the app a new facelift and there's a lot of cool features on the app. If you're on the homepage, you can see featured sale books and you can view our sale books. If you're looking for Angus genetics, the Angus website and the Angus app is the number one place in the world to view and find these genetics that are available for sales. Very popular. The app for that reason to find bulls and heifers and frozen genetics that are coming up for sale. This time of the year, especially in my region, the sale reports? Lots of conversations with people about sale reports and producers, both commercial and seedstock, that like to follow along to how the sales are going.

What's the market? Lots of people follow the sale reports this time of year on a daily basis. So I think that's great. It's one easy spot where you can view cattle upcoming for sale, but also track the markets through our sales report and sale market page.

Host Lynsey McAnally (05:16):

I downloaded the new app and just scrolling through here, that homepage does offer a lot of value in my opinion. Even being able to go in and look at the news that's available there. If you haven't made it over to the website and you're not following us on social media ... I will always encourage people to follow the Association, Angus Journal, Angus Beef Bulletin and Angus Media over on Facebook and other social apps. Just to be able to find those press releases and stories that may have value for both commercial and seedstock providers. But it's such a beautiful interface there when you first open that app to be able to find those sale books, find those sales reports and for it to just be so easy to scroll down and find things in my opinion. I may not be the most technically savvy when it comes to finding things on the internet.

There's probably others that feel that way as well, but this app makes it so easy to access the sales books and sale reports.

Andrew Swanson (06:16):

Yeah. Also on the calendar, of course it shows the upcoming sales, but also other events in the Angus world. You can dial that in to be region specific. So for example, in my region, if you're on the website, you type in angus.orgorg/swanson and you could see upcoming sales in the region, but also different events, trade shows, tours, things of that nature that Angus represents and encourages people to attend to use.

Host Lynsey McAnally (06:51):

With so many things going on out there in the world, it's nice to be able to just, if you're looking for a specific set of time that you want to find something in, maybe you have a little bit of downtime on a weekend? Or maybe it rains and you can't get out in the field. Being able to sort by date is great. Then just being able to find things that are going on relatively close to you also has a ton of value. And I also noticed that you can submit an event there. A very cool option. If you've realized that you're over there looking at different things going on and your event isn't listed, then maybe we want to get it on the calendar.

Andrew Swanson (07:26):

On the app, Lynsey, if you go to the My Herd section, I think this is a really relevant tool for breeders that have registered cattle in their inventory. Past the news and the calendar and the sale reports, I think one of the most used functions on the old app — and will be on this app as well — is the ability to search herd inventory. Let's say you're in the calving barn or let's say you're in the pasture and you want to look up a pedigree or the EPDs. To look up a [registration] number on one of your cows, you can just click on 'inventory' and then 'herd inventory', search and you can search by birth year, you could search by sex and you could search by tattoo number. So that'll probably be the most popular way to look up the cow that's in front of you that you just can't remember the pedigree or you can't remember who her great granddam was and you're curious.

I think that's a really relevant tool to be able to look up. Also, in the My Herd section of the new app, you can track your inventory reporting. I know that's something we encourage breeders to participate in and really give a whole herd aspect to their data entry and what their cows are doing for them. You can also submit data under the My Herd tab. So whether that's your calving book or your breeding data, your preg check data, you can transfer through the app, you can register through the app, just a great place to conduct business if you're not sitting down at a computer. You can do all these things through the new app. Also, you can view similar to the old app, you can still view your AHIR work history and your Produce of the Dam reports and I think that's relevant to anyone that's selling genetics.

You could find that information all at the tip of your fingers. So a lot of nice updates, a lot of nice features. Really liking different parts of the new app thus far.

Host Lynsey McAnally (09:26):

So talking about all of those tools that are available for our seedstock providers, another good thing to mention at this point I think would be if you are a commercial producer who has purchased registered bulls and has transferred those bulls into your name, if you go over to angus.org and you've created an account and a password, you could actually use that app to view your bull battery as well, correct?

Andrew Swanson (09:51):

Yep, absolutely.

Host Lynsey McAnally (09:52):

So we've talked about a few of the things that are at the bottom of the Angus app. So in that toolbar that's down toward the bottom of your phone, if you access the new Angus app that you've downloaded from the app store or Google store. But let's talk about the sales tab. We talked about sales books just a few minutes ago and the ability to go in and look at those and look at sale reports. But if you click on that sales tab, it expands that, right? So you can click on that tab or you could just select view more view all over on the main page of the app. But over on that sales tab, you have the ability to view sale books and sale reports. You can toggle between those two. And I think another cool thing to mention is if you click view all in that section, it actually pulls up the ability to search those books.

So can we talk about the function there, Andrew, and why that might be valuable to those commercial producers?

Andrew Swanson (10:53):

Absolutely. One of the coolest things to talk about this spring regarding genetics in the marketplace and trying to find what you're looking for as a breeder. This new searchable EPD function, I really like it. You can do it on the app or on the website, but everybody knows you can go into your login and you can search the entire genetic evaluation and you could plug in an EPD criteria and you can see what's available. What this does under our current sale books tab, searchable feature, you can find out what exists but also what is for sale. So if you put your sort in of, "Hey, I'm looking for a calving-ease bull and I've got to have +1 on marbling and I got to have 82 on $M, and that's what I decided is my criteria." You can plug that in, you can put a start date and an end date for when the cattle were born and for when they're for sale.

So like in our area there's a lot of yearling bulls for sale. You plug those age dates in for the cattle and if the seedstock supplier has opted to make their book searchable on angus.org, those cattle will show up if they meet that EPD criteria. So really cool searchable options through the angus.org  website as well as through the Angus app.

Host Lynsey McAnally (12:23):

Right. And I'm so glad that you mentioned that because that was one feature that Rachel and I discussed in her edition of Angus at Work  was just how valuable that is for producers to be able to dial that in either by state or by an EPD that they're looking for and exclude those animals that maybe don't meet their criteria or aren't feasible for them location wise so that they can really focus their energy on the ones that would fit their operation or any other limitations that they might have in place. I think another cool thing to talk about, and Rachel and I talked about this as well, is all of the different forms of media that are available over on that tab. So it's not just sale books. You can also view several other additional materials including maybe private treaty listings that are listed there, which I think would be of particular interest to our commercial producers as well.

But you can look at sire directories, state publications ... We also have some things like our breeder advertising, media kits, the readership survey, all sorts of things that are under that tab. I never want to say just because sale books are so vital to everything that we do, but we don't have only sale books over on that tab. There's a lot of other important media that can be accessed as well. So going back to that toolbar at the bottom of the app, there's one more section that we haven't talked about before we jump over into some additional tools and that's the search section. So I think it's really neat that the way my brain works, I think I search in multiple ways. So it might be by sale book, it could be by breeder, or it could be just going in to find a particular animal.

And I think this is of particular importance when we're talking about maybe we want to pull up EPDs on a certain sire, maybe we're at a sale and we want to really go back in an animal's history and look at their grand dam or great grand sire. If you have a few crucial details, you can go in and search for that animal. Do you want to touch a litle bit on that, Andrew?

Andrew Swanson (14:33):

Yeah. So really relevant feature in the app, the search bar for both, like you said, an animal. If you type in their registration name ... Probably more common would be their registration number. If you find a bull that you're considering AIing to and you want to look up his EPDs, this is where you would look that bull up. Either the registered name or the official reg number and it'll take you right to their registration paper on angus.org.

Also on the 'Find a Breeder' tab, really, really nice feature. You can filter that down by city or by state, by zip or by member code. So if you're wanting to search breeders in South Dakota, for example, you can filter down to South Dakota and you can look through and you can find the name of the farm, the name of the breeder, their member code, as well as their contact information. So a good feature, whether you're a seedstock producer or a commercial cow-calf producer.

Host Lynsey McAnally (15:42):

So we've talked about all of the different options and icons down there at the bottom of the Angus app. If we go up to that top right-hand corner, all of our viewers and listeners, if they've got the app open, they're going to see a magnifying glass there, which if they click that is going to take them right back to that search function. I am one to appreciate several different ways to get to the same point, especially when you've got a million things on your mind. Having the ability to find that search bar in a couple different sections is great, but if you click on the other icon there in the top right-hand corner, that's going to be those three lines stacked on top of one another. You're going to get to a feature that has a lot more options for you. The ones there at the top, if you open up that sidebar are going to be to either call or email the association, which I think our users will probably find a lot of value in.

But dropping down, there is a tools and resource section. If you click on that, it's going to open up some things that I think a lot of our producers are probably using elsewhere. So either they are using a calculator to come up with these adjustments or they've got a spreadsheet back at home or even another software that they're using to calculate when their cows are due and things like that. But can we talk a little bit about some of the tools in place there, Andrew, maybe starting at the top of that tools and resources section?

Andrew Swanson (17:13):

Yeah. So if you click on tools and resources, you'll find quite a few options of different, let's call them tools and resources. First, the cross-breed EPD adjustment. If you click on that, it'll take all the other breeds and you can use this tool to compare different breeds to Angus. So you just got to do a little math, but it takes all of Angus' EPDs that can be compared and it just puts their EPD at zero and then it shows the adjustment factor to change to a different breed. So then you can compare different breeds if that's what you're wanting to do. Also, the age in days calculator. It gives that age window for AHIR measurements. So kind of gives your weaning and yearling ultrasound date range where we can accept that data to turn in under AHIR. So then you have that information. Also, the gestation calculator would be a tool that's really popular.

You can plug in, "Hey, if I breed my cow or breed my heifer on this day, when is her expected due date?" You can plug in a service date to find a due date, or you could plug in a calving date to try to find a service date. So you can work that both ways and just to show the gestation customized to the date range that you want to use. Also, want to touch on a couple other features. The sale date calculator — if you're a breeder and you're getting started in the business or you're wanting to maybe make your sale your first sale, your 10th sale, your 50th sale — if you're wanting to put a little more focus on planning for your sale day, I think this is a great tool. It takes you to our website where you can plan your pathway to sale day.

Host Lynsey McAnally (19:33):

That answers a lot of questions, I think, over in that sale day calculator. Just from the standpoint of when you need to start thinking about having your sale and then all the way down to when you need to be uploading lot videos. So really takes you from that year out mark down to have a successful sale day. We've talked about several of the things that are available over on that tools and resources guide, but there's one down there at the bottom titled 'Scoring Guides' that, although our commercial breeders might not be submitting those scores, I think it's really important that we talk about what those are and why they would be of value to those producers.

Andrew Swanson (20:12):

Absolutely. So we've got four different options as of today for scoring guides, you can click on any of the four and it'll take you right to the scoring guides. So body condition scoring would be the first example. It kind of gives you the chart of [BCS] 1 through 9, "Hey, this is how you look at body conditioning scoring your cow." You can also foot score, you can teat and udder score and you can view the hair shedding scores as well. So again, whether you're a breeder or a commercial cattle producer, I think very, very relevant information all at your fingertips on the new Angus app.

Host Lynsey McAnally (21:00):

And I think the other important thing to mention there is those are very well put together documents even for someone who maybe is new in the industry all the way up to someone who's been in the cattle business for decades or generations. To have actual images of cattle to compare to versus maybe an illustration — from my perspective — makes it a little bit easier to compare your cattle to another real life example. We've talked about all of these things available on the app and I think the only thing left is to encourage people to go over and download it.

Andrew Swanson (21:34):

Yeah, absolutely. Like I said at the beginning, if you have an interest in Angus cattle, if you've been in the business your whole life or if you're just getting started, I would encourage everyone to download the Angus mobile app.

Host Lynsey McAnally (21:48):

Andrew, we always end Angus at Work — rather or try to end Angus at Work — on a positive note. This has been a pretty positive and upbeat episode anyway, but what is one good thing happening in your life personally or professionally that you'd like to share?

Andrew Swanson (22:05):

Yeah, so my wife and I are expecting our third child come August and we're awfully excited about that. We've got two boys right now and looking forward to getting the third little one here, settling in as a family of five.

Host Lynsey McAnally (22:20):

Oh my gosh, that's awesome. Well, congratulations to all of you guys and thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Angus at Work.

Andrew Swanson (22:28):

Thanks, Lynsey. Have a great day!

Host Lynsey McAnally (22:35):

Listeners, for more information on making Angus work for you, check out the Angus Beef Bulletin and the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. You can subscribe to both publications in the show notes. If you have questions or comments, let us know at abbeditorial@angus.org and we would appreciate it if you would leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with any other profit-minded cattlemen. Thanks for listening. This has been Angus at Work!