Lois Black who farms near Greenock, outside Glasgow runs a mainly grass-based system over 700 acres with 70 Simmental, Shorthorn and Angus cattle. Lois historically sold finished cattle through a private dealer and says she had little idea about what her cattle weighed. Which, like many farmers, resulted in negotiating a sale price without knowing the true potential of her stock.
Ms Black invested in weighing equipment and started using the Breedr app, which enabled her to keep track of each animal’s weight. “It used to be that the dealer would come and we’d have a look at the animal, guess the weight and then negotiate a price. But when I started weighing my cattle, I realised they were heavier than I thought, so I could sell them for more.
“Using Breedr has changed my life"
“Now I weigh them, and based on that, staff at Breedr help me come up with a guide price before I put them on the Breedr marketplace. I’ve sold 24 cattle so far on Breedr and got around £100 a head more than usual, so it’s made quite a big difference to my income.”
Potential buyers are able to message and ask questions through the app, which has been helpful, and she’s even started to build a customer base. “I’ve had one farmer who bought some heifers off me and now wants my bullocks next year too,” says Ms Black. “The app has also widened my customer base – I’ve sold cattle in Scotland but also to buyers in England.”
Using Breedr is also helping Ms Black identify her inefficiencies as she moves towards a more grass-based system. “Weighing the cattle and using the app has highlighted where my weaknesses are,” she says. “Breedr gives me all these graphs about how efficient I am, and it showed me that my cattle were actually losing weight over winter, which I didn’t know. So now I’m looking at making the grazing season longer, trying to get more out of my grass in the growing season, and perhaps get in a nutritionist,” she adds.
Breedr’s other features are a big help too, cutting out paperwork and the need to log into multiple platforms. “I have all the information I need at my fingertips on Breedr,” says Ms Black. “I just log in and I can see how many cattle I’ve got on my farm at any one time, who the dam and sire are for each, vet and medicine history and weight. Plus, it collates all your data from CTS Online.
“It’s just so useful, and it’s aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. Someone from Breedr even phoned me up when I got it and talked me through how to use it.”
Ms Black plans to continue using the app to sell her stock, monitor weight changes and improve efficiencies.