Farm record keeping: a routine you can repeat

Build a daily routine around the animal’s identity, the event date and a short note about the work completed. In HerdMobile, follow animal events, feed quantities, sales and payments together on your phone. Check the day’s entries before finishing, add missing receipt or weighing details, and save a backup for your next phone.

Edited by Ender Soyuince · About our content

2026-10-21

Compiled from open-access scientific sources.

What makes an entry usable later?

Start with the ear tag or animal name and the event date. Write quantities with units such as litres, kilograms or bale counts. Keep your own observation and the veterinarian’s finding clearly identified in the note. Complete a missing receipt or weight when the original document arrives. Oklahoma State’s guide separates production and financial records for farm management. In HerdMobile, the animal’s dated history helps the next worker find the event and pick up the next task.

Which quantities should stay separate?

Record milk produced and milk sold separately so each total answers its own question. Do the same for feed purchased into stock and feed used in the daily ration. Mark bale or sack weights estimated from a count, then update them after weighing. Keep an animal sale and its payments with their own dates. In HerdMobile, follow each partial collection against the sale and open the remaining receivable before contacting the buyer.

How do you protect the routine?

Choose a realistic review time, check for missing identities or units and reconcile important entries with the documents or physical stock. HerdMobile keeps records on your Android phone for offline access in the barn and pasture. Save regular backup copies somewhere you can reach, and practise restoring a copy so you know the steps before changing phones. A paper notebook, spreadsheet or app each needs an agreed handover and protection from loss. Keep a regular backup and agree who updates each record. Before buying feed or following a payment, open the animal, feed and money records for the same period. HerdMobile keeps these daily records together on your phone for work around the farm.

Questions from the farm

Which records should I start with?

Start with stable animal identities and the events you already observe reliably. Use a routine you can keep each day, then add useful detail consistently.

How do I keep sales and payments clear?

Record the sale and actual payments separately, with dates and supporting documents. This makes partial collections and outstanding amounts easier to follow.

How do I keep my records available?

Use HerdMobile offline on your phone and make backup exports part of the routine. Keep a separate copy in a place you control.

How HerdMobile helps

Bring your animals, feed stocks and farm accounts together on your Android phone. HerdMobile keeps your daily work moving offline: record events, compare feed quantities and follow sales and payments in one place. Use your own feeds and herd information to prepare a ration, then keep a backup file under your control.

A herd with saved animal records — Keep the day’s work in view: open your animal records, plan feeding, follow farm accounts and manage your backup in HerdMobile.

Sources

Oklahoma State University — Record-keeping