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Current economic and social trends are driving the cattle industry´s needs for better record-keeping. This paper assesses those needs and critiques three current, commerically available programs for their ability to address them with a high degree of both utility and usability. An overview of the industry and its needs are presented along with a comparison of each program´s offerings. Usability (user- friendliness) was critiqued with both a user-test and a heuristic evaluation. The results of both were then compared with each other.

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Mrs. Martin received her Master´s Degree in Agriculture from Murray State University in 2010. She currently lives in western Kentucky, USA with her husband and three children.

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