EVERY dollar counts when selling or buying cattle.

It’s a point Andrew Miller makes often as he tells the story behind the Herd XL smartphone app he and wife Megan have developed to help other producers compare different marketing scenarios for their cattle anywhere at any time, with or without mobile reception.

“We’re beef producers, the only income we get every year is when we sell beef,” Andrew tells Beef Central.

“And if we don’t do that well, then the rest of what we do throughout the year is, well, it makes it very tough.”

Andrew and Megan learned the “every dollar counts” lesson very early as young producers in 2011 when they borrowed money to lease a property, only to walk straight into rising interest rates, falling cattle prices and rapidly deteriorating seasonal conditions.

Such an experience tends to sharpen your business focus very quickly, Andrew said with a knowing laugh.

“We had to survive, it was our one and only shot at getting something of our own, or at least it felt like that at the time,” he recalled.

“So we sharpened up, every dollar counted and we wanted to make the most of every decision.

“Just sending cattle away, ringing an agent without any understanding of where they were going, who they were going to or what price we were getting wasn’t going to cut it.

“And so we had to understand our numbers and get really good at capitalising on those good times of the year and capturing as much of that profit as we could.”

They started developing complex spreadsheets to enhance their decision-making process, which they have continued to use on a large property in western Queensland they now manage for an interstate owner.

Andrew said the spreadsheets helped them to justify and be accountable for the marketing decisions they make on behalf of the property’s owners and to ensure they are maximising returns generated.

The spreadsheets have also been adapted and refined with the help of their agribusiness consultant, Ian McLean from Bush Agribusiness.

The only problem was that spreadsheets weren’t exactly “paddock friendly”.

“The next obvious evolution was being able to run them out in the yards or in a paddock,” he explained.

“You know, you’re riding along on your bike, you might think ‘they’re a bit heavier than I thought, what would they look like in this market?’, or that sort of thing.

“And so it evolved as, ‘this would be really good to have on your phone’ – same results but inputs simplified.”

Hence Herd XL was born, incorporating all of the knowledge from their spreadsheets in a simple practical app that enables producers to quickly and easily compare different purchasing and sale scenarios to maximize beef profit margins.

It incorporates five user-friendly calculators or tools that can be accessed at any time regardless of mobile signal to help make more informed decisions.

The five calculators are:

SELLING COMPARISON: Calculates net proceeds from different sales points to help determine most profitable option.

Also allows producers to assess outcomes of selling one mob at different points in time.

TRADER: Provides gross beef cattle profit margins and return on capital outlaid using purchase and sales data.

FUTURE WEIGHT: Estimates future weight of cattle by the selected turnoff date using current weights and average daily gains.

TURNOFF DATE: Estimates the number of days between the tail and the lead hitting minimum target weights.

DRESSING PERCENTAGE: Estimates liveweights and average (or entered) dressing percentages to calculate carcass weight in cattle or vice versa.

Andrew said the app is designed to help producers take the guesswork out of buying and selling cattle, with minimal inputs required.

“When you’re selling cattle, there are so many variables to consider, whether it’s using AuctionsPlus, the local saleyards, or direct-to-feedlot,” he said.

“Each has their own commission, and varying freight costs associated with it.

“Herd XL compares all those variables and calculates which option provides the best value and the least inefficiencies.”

The App was developed with co-investment support from the MLA Donor Company, which accelerated the commercial development process.

It can be downloaded from the Google or Apple store and as a Web App on your PC with a subscription fee for users of $199.99 per year, with one-month free trial also included. For more information visit the HerdXL web page here.

• To illustrate a previously completed trade using the Herd XL app, Andrew and Megan have provided Beef Central readers with the following example which used the Trader calculator to perform a trade on 114 heifers over 10 months to return a gross margin of $63,767 or $559 per head, equating to Return on Capital Outlaid of 57.4%.