Customer Success Story - Krazy K Longhorns
With a century-long family history in the cattle industry, Theo and Gail Kocian have taken over the family land near Hallettsville, TX, to raise their Texas Longhorn herd, consisting of 50 “mama cows”, two senior herd sires and two junior bulls.
“We have a straight Butler and blend program and are producing Longhorns with correct conformation and good milking abilities with a little twist to the horn for added beauty and uniqueness,” Gail said.
She said they have spent much of the past year focusing on their pastures, with added fencing and ponds to accommodate the newly sectioned areas. They are also building alleyways to ease the process of moving cattle and be certain their bulls are separated.
Gail is the full-time rancher, while Theo works as an instrument/electrical designer in Houston, TX, during the week.
“We bought our first Longhorns in 2002 with the idea that we’d own just a few to keep the grass down,” she said, “Soon we were going to sales and buying more cows and doubled our numbers within one year.”
Two years later, the Kocians purchased LonghornMax to keep better cattle records after receiving information on the program in their TLBAA membership package.
“In our first year of operation, I kept my cattle records on spreadsheets and typed out reports on Microsoft Word,” Gail said, “We only had about two dozen head of Longhorns, so the record keeping wasn’t too intense. There is no way I could do without LonghornMax today with the number we have now.”
She said her favorite feature in LonghornMax is the flexible reporting.
“There are so many different reports to choose from and ways to customize them that it’s easy to produce anything needed to keep precise records,” she said.
The most common report Gail uses at Krazy K is the cattle inventory report by pasture, followed by the picture thumbnail report.
“It’s [the inventory report] very helpful when checking the cattle in each pasture and also when showing customers around the ranch,” she said, “Having photos to go along with the inventory report is definitely beneficial.”
She recommended that new LonghornMax customers familiarize themselves with the printable manual, and print a copy for easy reference when necessary.
“All the features are great and I’ve used almost all of them hundreds of times,” Gail said, “There have been times when I couldn’t use a feature correctly, but the LonghornMax technical support team was always helpful in guiding me through solving a problem.”
She said LonghornMax has helped Krazy K keep accurate and detailed records on each animal born or brought into their herd.
“I enter data on a daily basis so the records on all our cattle our current. That enables me to answer any question a customer may have about any Longhorn we own and I like being able to give customers the information they request,” Gail said.
She said she always shows her customers how easy it is to enter information and improve record keeping with LonghornMax.
“It’s a time-saving program that I can’t do without,” she said.
To learn more about Krazy K Longhorns or to view their Texas Longhorn cattle, visit them online at http://www.krazyklonghorns.com.
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