How many are still using pen and paper to track crosses?
I still use the tried-and-true method of earlier breeders: manually recording the coordinates of the crosses. I enjoy taking notes quickly and flipping through my handwritten breeding logs more than browsing through them on the computer. Of course, I maintain a comprehensive photo database of the seedlings from the various breeding years on the computer.
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I keep a paper “Stud Book” in the house for recording the dates of my crosses and any notes, but also use my iPhone for note-taking “in the field”. Most of the time I ensure any appropriate field-notes are transferred. It doesn’t always happen, but at least I’ve two places to check. lol
The Stud Book is riddled with expletives about the deer this year, eating back seedlings from last year that are supposed to be being evaluated (hard to make an evaluation of something that never gets a chance to show off) or WORSE YET: flowers intended for crossing that got eaten, or hips made recently being munched off!
At least things grew well, despite the unwanted “pruning”, and they should be just spectacular next year, when I’m away from the big, four-legged destroyers-of-my-peace. Seriously, the island subspecies of Elk are the largest; like a couch on stilts.