Articles
Practical articles about livestock record keeping for cattle and sheep operations.
AgriStability Records: What Livestock Producers Need
The 2025 AgriStability filing deadline is June 30, 2026. The records the program asks livestock producers for — breeding-female counts, inventory, feed, and allowable expenses.
Sheep and Goat Traceability in Canada: What to Record Now
CFIA plans updated sheep, goat, and cervid traceability rules. The records worth keeping now, in a format that works on paper, spreadsheet, or app.
Chute-Side Record Keeping: Get It All on Working Day
What to capture on every animal at the chute — ID, product, dose, route, withdrawal, weight — on a worksheet for paper, spreadsheet, or app.
Feed Ration Record Keeping for Cattle and Sheep
How to keep feed ration records that survive variable bale weights: per-head-per-day math, a feeding log template, and what to write down at every load.
Lambing Record Template: What to Track at Every Birth
A practical lambing record template for sheep producers. The fields worth tracking at every birth, on paper, in a spreadsheet, or in an app.
Keep or Cull: What Your Ewe and Cow Records Can Tell You
How lambing, calving, and health records give you real context for keep/cull decisions — and which records to check before sale day.
Calving and Treatment Records: Capture Them in the Field
The calving and treatment record fields worth capturing in the field, why notes go missing between the chute and the desk, and how to close the gap.
Ranch.Bot's Mission: Practical AI-Native Livestock Records
Ranch.Bot turns plain-language livestock notes into structured records. The mission behind AI-native recordkeeping for cattle and sheep operations.
Livestock Management Software: Ranch.Bot vs Alternatives
An honest livestock management software comparison across paper, spreadsheets, older and modern platforms, EID readers, and AI assistants.
Using ChatGPT or Claude With Your Cattle Records
Producers already ask ChatGPT about their herds. Here is what a chat can and can't do for cattle records, and how to connect an assistant properly.
What Your AI Assistant Can and Can't Do With Herd Records
Straight answers on connecting an AI assistant to livestock records: what it can read and write, where review happens, and how to revoke access.
Why You Need to Keep Records on Your Farm
The honest case for farm record keeping — compliance, keep/cull decisions, accounting, and where paper and spreadsheets fall short.
Cull-Cow Decisions When the Market Is at a Record
Cull cows are worth more than ever — and so is one more calf. When both choices pay, your records make the keep-or-cull call. Here is what to pull.
Deworming Records for Sheep and Goats: Making FAMACHA Work
Dewormer resistance is here. FAMACHA and selective deworming slow it down — but only if you keep records. What to track, and how the records pay off.
Is AI Bad for Agriculture? An Honest Look
Data centers, water, and jobs — the case against AI deserves a straight answer. What AI costs, and what it actually does on a working livestock operation.
Lambing Percentage: Find Where You Lose Lambs
Lamb demand is outpacing Prairie supply. Lambing percentage and death loss are the two levers you control — here is what to record to find where lambs are lost.
One Herd Record, Any AI Tool: Why Open Beats Locked-In
Picking a livestock app with AI? The real question is whether your records work with any assistant or just one vendor's. Why open standards matter.
Record-Keeping for Registered and Seedstock Producers
Seedstock record keeping for registered cattle and sheep: what to track per animal, and why documented animals earn buyer trust at sale time.
The Records Behind Your Cost to Keep a Cow
Most operations can’t name their cost to keep a cow. The records behind that number, with US and Canadian figures and a usable template.
Sheep flock productivity: know your own numbers
The averages describe nobody's flock. Here are the sheep flock productivity numbers worth knowing — and the per-animal records behind each one.
Pre-Breeding Records That Pay Off at Calving and Lambing
What to record at the pre-breeding herd-health visit — male soundness, vaccinations, and body condition — so calving and lambing questions have answers next spring.
The Essentials of Breeding Records, EPDs & EBVs
Breeding records and the EPD/EBV: the source records you keep, the number your breed association computes, and the honest line between them.
The Essentials of Calving & Lambing Records
The canonical guide to calving and lambing records — the field set, the difficulty code that predicts keep/cull, death-loss capture, and the one-page sheet.
The Essentials of Livestock Treatment & Withdrawal Records
What to record for every livestock treatment, what 'cleared' means, and the two chute-side errors behind residue violations. The withdrawal records guide.
The Essentials of Group, Movement & Inventory Records
The canonical guide to livestock movement and cattle inventory records: per-move events, head count, reconciliation, traceability, and cost-to-keep.