Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for cattle farms.
A checklist built from how cattle farms work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Animal register by tag
- Heat, service and calving log
- Treatments and withdrawal clock
- Milk yield by cow and tank
- Ration groups and feed stock
- Weights and growth
- Sales, culls and movement papers
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For owners
- For herd managers
- For milkers and pen staff
- For visiting vets
- For farm office staff
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Open cows by days since calving, with last service and sire
- Calving interval and expected due dates by month
- Animals under milk or meat withdrawal, with clearing dates
- Milk yield per cow per lactation, against the tank statement
- Feed issued per group, cost per litre and cost per kilogram of gain
- Weight gain by calf and finisher against breed target
- Sales and culls with weight, age and buyer
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- RFID tag readers
- Weighing scale entry
- SMS
- Accounting export
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Can it handle a mixed herd of dairy and beef animals?
- How does the withdrawal clock work?
- Can we record milk without a meter?
- Can breeding dates show which cows are open?
- Does it track feed by group?
- Can a buyer be given an animal’s history?
- Will it work in the sheds with weak signal?
- Who owns the herd data?
- How is the herd data moved in at the start?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Milk withdrawal is tracked on a parlour slate
- Heat and service dates are guessed
- Milk is totalled, not traced
- Feed is bought against a headcount that changed
- Pedigree and sale papers are rebuilt on demand
Prefer to talk it through? See the cattle farms page.