Author: Jessica James
Planning Unit: Henderson County CES
Major Program: Beef
Plan of Work: Agricultural Practices
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
For this program, I partnered with Katie Hughes in Union County. This was over a new software management program created by Dr. Les Anderson that is used for record keeping on cattle farms. It is called X10D. It is a good way for producers to be able to keep their records on their cell phone or laptop. I had mentioned this app on the radio but it was hard to explain in just a few minutes so I wanted to have a program over it. Especially with it being a newer app, I thought that it would be a good idea to introduce it to the producers in the county and also surrounding counties. I figured that whether they used that exact app or not to keep up with their records, they will at least leave with an understanding of how important it is to have a system that works best for them. Keeping records might sound like a pretty simple thing to do and most producers have a good understanding on how important it is but I know from personal experience that it is easier said than done. So this is something that all farmers can relate to no matter what kind of operation they have. Although in this case, we were targeting Beef Producers.
Katie Hughes and I decided to go in together on this so that we could reach more people. We contacted Dr. Les Anderson to see if he could come and teach them how to use the app and he agreed to come on August 9th. The program was at my office and it worked well because we had producers come from a few different counties. They asked a lot of questions and got the answers they were looking for. The unique thing about this X10D app is that you can keep records on it and also get educational material and upcoming events that is sent out from the beef specialists. It is up to the agents to distribute the educational content so it was a good way for me to learn what my job is as an agent and how I need to be using the app to get the information out. As far as the outcome for the meeting, we had a good number of people to attend. They asked questions and it was very hands on. They all got the app downloaded on their phones and learned how to enter their individual animals information. Everyone has their own preferences on how they prefer to keep up with records. Whether they decided to use the app on their farm or not, it was good for them to come and see if it was going to work for them or not. Overall, it got them thinking about different record keeping ways. We knew it would be a good program because there was something for everyone because even if they are not using it for records, they can still use it for the educational material and be in the know about upcoming events.
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