Field Notes
Practical guides on livestock records, keep-or-cull decisions, and getting the most out of your records, organized by topic, for beef, bison, goat, lamb, and other operations.
The essentials
Start hereCore guides and printable sheets for breeding, births, and group movements. Start with the details to write down and keep for later.
Essentials: Breeding Records, EPDs & EBVs
Keep exposure dates, animal identities, source measurements and published EPD or EBV reports with their program definitions and provenance.
Essentials: Calving & Lambing Records
Keep dam and offspring IDs, dated birth observations, assistance notes and outcomes without guessing diagnoses or using a universal score.
Essentials: Group, Movement & Inventory Records
Keep movement notes, group membership changes and physical counts separate, then reconcile the dated records and investigate differences.
Sheep flock productivity: know your own numbers
Compare lambs born and lambs weaned with one worked flock example. Keep ewe cohorts, denominators, transfers, and unresolved outcomes clear.
Record workflows
Keep calving, lambing, treatment, movement, and breeding records with practical guides, templates, and checklists.
SheepTrace: What’s changing for sheep producers
Understand the SheepTrace transition, what stays the same, and which sheep records to keep as Canada's program changes administrators.
AgriStability Records for Livestock Producers
Organize livestock counts, feed inventories and source documents for the correct AgriStability program year and administrator.
Sheep & Goat Traceability in Canada
Keep sheep and goat identity and movement records, with existing Canadian requirements clearly separated from proposed traceability changes.
Chute-Side Record Keeping 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.
Free Lambing Record Template: PDF & Excel
Download a free lambing record template for ewe IDs, lambs, birth outcomes, assistance, fostering, and weaning. Includes PDF and Excel files.
FAMACHA Records for Sheep and Goats
Use FAMACHA records with official training: what to record, three real on-farm eyelid examples, and links to approved courses and the official card.
Record-Keeping for Registered & Seedstock
Seedstock record keeping for registered cattle and sheep: identifiers, source records, association values, sale preparation, and current Ranch.Bot limits.
Essentials: Breeding Records, EPDs & EBVs
Keep exposure dates, animal identities, source measurements and published EPD or EBV reports with their program definitions and provenance.
Essentials: Calving & Lambing Records
Keep dam and offspring IDs, dated birth observations, assistance notes and outcomes without guessing diagnoses or using a universal score.
Essentials: Group, Movement & Inventory Records
Keep movement notes, group membership changes and physical counts separate, then reconcile the dated records and investigate differences.
Ewe Body Condition Score Records
Record ewe body condition scores with the date, scoring method, observer and production stage, plus questions for a flock review.
Records into decisions
Look back through breeding, birth, and health records before deciding which animals to keep.
Keep or Cull: What Your Records Tell You
How lambing, calving, and health records give you real context for keep/cull decisions, and which records to check before sale day.
Why Keep Farm Records? A Minimum System
Build a minimum farm record system with identities, dated events, group counts and source documents you can retrieve and check.
Lambing Percentage Calculator: Born, Weaned & Loss Rates
Calculate lambing rates by ewe age class, plus lambs born, weaned, lost, and weight weaned per ewe liveweight with every denominator shown.
The Records Behind Your Cost to Keep a Cow
A cost-record worksheet for the cow enterprise: source documents, allocation methods, a stated denominator and clear gross-margin terminology.
Sheep flock productivity: know your own numbers
Compare lambs born and lambs weaned with one worked flock example. Keep ewe cohorts, denominators, transfers, and unresolved outcomes clear.
From spreadsheets to structured records
Compare paper, spreadsheets, and livestock software, and find out how to bring your existing records with you.
AI assistant connections
Find out which ways of connecting an AI assistant are available and what they can do with livestock records.