Livestock Management

The Livestock tab is the heart of Barnsbook™. Every animal you manage lives here — from the day they're born or purchased to the day they leave your operation. Barnsbook supports all farm species: cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, poultry, and more.

Adding Animals

Tap the + button in the Livestock tab to add a new animal. You can record:

• Species and breed — select from a list or enter a custom breed
• Name or tag number — your visible identifier for the animal
• EID tag — electronic identification number for scanning
• Date of birth — used to calculate age and lifecycle stage
• Sex and status — active, sold, deceased, or transferred
• Pasture assignment — which pasture the animal is currently in
• Photo — attach a photo from your camera or library
• Purchase price and date — for expense tracking and profitability
• Notes — any additional details you want to record

Weight Tracking

Log weights over time for any animal to track growth. Access Weight Tracking from More > Farm Management. Each weight entry records the date and measurement. Barnsbook calculates Average Daily Gain (ADG) from your entries so you can monitor performance and compare against breed expectations.

With a Premium subscription, Barnsbook uses AI to predict future weight gain and flag animals that are falling behind expected ADG.

Lifecycle Stages

Access Lifecycle Stages from More > Farm Management. This feature tracks where each animal is in its production cycle — calf, weaned, yearling, breeding age, cow, and so on. You can move animals between stages manually or use Barnsbook's automatic stage tracking based on age and events like weaning and calving.

Pedigree Tracking

The Pedigree feature (More > Farm Management) lets you record sire and dam relationships for each animal. Barnsbook builds a visual family tree so you can trace lineage, identify inbreeding risks, and track bloodlines across your herd. This is especially useful for registered livestock operations.

Milk Production

For dairy animals, Milk Production (More > Farm Management) lets you log yields per session — morning and evening milkings, liters or gallons produced, and quality notes. Barnsbook identifies your top producers and flags animals with declining output.

Production Tracking

Production Tracking (More > Farm Management) covers non-milk outputs like eggs from poultry, honey from hives, or wool from sheep. Log production amounts and track output trends over time.

EID Scanner

Barnsbook supports Bluetooth EID (electronic identification) readers. When you tap EID Scanner from the More menu or a Chute Session, bring your reader near an ear tag and the animal automatically appears on screen. This eliminates manual lookup during processing and reduces errors when working cattle through the chute.

Chute Sessions

A Chute Session lets you process a group of animals quickly with your EID reader. As you scan each animal, Barnsbook pulls up their record — health history, weight, vaccination status, and more — so you can log treatments, weights, and notes without stopping your workflow. Sessions are saved so you can review what was done during the session.

EID scanning and chute sessions are available on all plans, including the free tier.