Teaching Livestock Producers to Use Handheld Computers

Mandatory animal ID is a well-discussed topic among livestock producers. A national ID program will probably require animal records to be maintained in electronic format. A 2-day intensive training was held to help cattle producers become proficient in using a handheld computer for animal record keeping. On an end-of-meeting evaluation, 99% of the participants felt a handheld computer would make record keeping tasks easier. A follow-up survey was mailed 1 year after the program generated a 70% response rate. After one year, only 57% of the participants felt that the handheld computer made their record-keeping task easier.