TJ Hoof Care, owned by Travis and Joya McCarthy, will showcase TJ Hoof Hub during World Ag Expo. Travis is a hoof trimmer in California’s Central Valley. Joya is the daughter of a third-generation dairy farmer from Waterford, California, and involved in consulting roles in the dairy business.
She says the idea for the smartphone app developed shortly after her husband started his own independent hoof-trimming business and has been in development for over a year. She says they both saw quickly that the hoof-trimming industry has a very independent work style.
“Everybody’s done recordkeeping a little differently, trying to get creative by making different spreadsheets or different carbon copy-type recording systems to keep themselves organized and be efficient with their data,” Joya says. “This app gives them all the tools that they need to run their businesses efficiently.”
The app has a twofold mission – be the enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool for the hoof trimmer and facilitate efficient hoof data sharing with dairy clients. While there may be existing tools that address one or the other aspects of a hoof-trimming business, the new app will address both in one place.
Hoof trimmers can monitor their inventory, send invoices, manage client-specific pricing lists, monitor financials, book client visits, contact clients and manage their work calendar within the app. They can also pull monthly reports to show how many cows they have trimmed in a month, how many wraps or blocks on average they use per month, and other metrics to monitor their business. These tools should help trimmers better assess what treatment strategies are working across multiple clients, Joya says.
“What makes our program unique is the business tools that it offers the hoof trimmer and the engagement and communication between them and their customers,” Joya says.
Because the app will be cloud-based, a producer-client can log into the app and see the history of what has been done on each cow, view pictures from individual trims that the trimmer has uploaded and review overall hoof health reports. The app can also send those reports via email to other farm stakeholders, such as a vet or nutritionist. Joya says the company is working on APIs and intends to integrate the data from their app into common herd management software systems so that producers can see their hoof health data alongside other herd management information.
“A producer needs to have this data in order to know what exactly is going on and to know how to spend money wisely to address hoof health correctly,” Joya says. “Without this data, a producer is stuck in that trial-and-error treatment cycle.”
Overall, the app will save trimmers and dairy managers time tracking hoof health data that is currently not tracked or tracked only manually. The cost to input and access data on the app will be based on per-cow usage.
“We know that some guys have a couple of customers and that other guys have multiple trucks and are doing hundreds of cows a day,” Joya says.
All the app’s features are available to paying users regardless of whether a dairy or trimmer trims 100 cows or 100,000 cows.
“This app really gives them the time and opportunity to just focus on their work. The app will handle the rest,” Joya says.
TJ Hoof Hub
TJ Hoof Care
Exhibit space: DX32 
Courtesy photo.
-
Walt Cooley
- Managing Editor
- Progressive Dairy
- Email Walt Cooley
