Herd management software that keeps your cattle list honest
Know what you own, where it sits, and what happened last weigh day. Cattly is free cattle management software for livestock inventory, groups, weights, and treatments. A cattle record keeping app for ranchers who quit trusting the notebook in the glovebox.
Herd snapshot
LiveNo per-head fee
Animals & users
Import from sheets
Shared with the crew
One animal list instead of three notebooks
Most ranches do not lose money because they lack a fancy dashboard. They lose money because nobody agrees how many steers are in the east pen. Herd management software fixes that first.
Add cattle with tag, sex, breed, birth date, and status. Attach photos if you want. Print a QR profile for chute day. Import a CSV when you are moving off Excel. The goal is a list you trust when the buyer calls.
What sits on each animal record
- Tag / ID, sex, breed, birth year
- Status: active, sold, dead, culled
- Group or pen assignment
- Weight history and treatment log
- Attachments and printable QR profile
Cattle record keeping without the binder hunt
People searching for cattle record keeping software usually want the same thing: a place to write what happened and find it again in under a minute. That is farm record keeping for livestock, not a crop ERP.
Cattly stores ID, status, weights, vaccines, and sales on the animal. When the vet asks what you gave last spring, you open the tag instead of digging through a coffee-stained notebook. If you are still comparing free options, start with our free cattle record keeping app guide.
What to log
Purchases, births, weights, treatments, moves between pens, and sales. Skip inventing fields you will never fill.
Who can see it
Unlimited users on free. Spouse, hired hand, or kid after school can update the same livestock records without sharing a password napkin.
What you can export
CSV and PDF for lenders, breed associations, and accountants. Your cattle farm management data should leave with you if you ever switch tools.
A livestock tracking app that works at the chute
"Livestock tracking app" searchers are not always hunting GPS collars. Most want a cattle management app on the phone: look up a tag, mark a move, log a shot before the next animal hits the headgate.
Cattly runs in the browser on phones and has mobile apps for field work. That covers herd management app use cases for cow-calf, stocker, and small feedlot crews. For map-based pasture moves, use pasture management on the same herd.
Phone jobs that matter
- Find an animal by tag during sorting
- Add a weight after the scale settles
- Log a vaccine with withdrawal in mind
- Move a group from pen A to pen B
Herd management software features ranchers actually use
Feature pages love long checklists. Here is the short version for free livestock management software that stays useful after week one.
| Feature | In Cattly | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Cattle inventory & status | Yes, unlimited | Know active vs sold vs dead without a second list |
| Pens / flocks / groups | Yes | Livestock tracking by how you sort |
| Weights & ADG path | Yes + free calculator | See who is earning their feed |
| Health & withdrawal history | Yes | Ship with a record, not a guess |
| CSV import / export | Yes | Leave Excel without starting from zero |
| Multi-user free plan | Yes | Crew updates the same herd management app |
| Breeding / calving | Same login | Via cow-calf software |
| Per-head fees | $0 | Free for cattle farms that grow |
Cattle farm software for the outfits we see most
Cattle farm management software searches cover everything from a backyard pair of bottle calves to a commercial yard. Cattly is built for cattle-first work. Small farms and homesteads are welcome; the free tier does not nick you for staying under 50 head.
Cow-calf & stocker
Keep cows, calves, and yearlings on one list. Use groups for breeding lots and grass turns. When calving season hits, open cow-calf tools without migrating data.
Small feedlot / finishing
Pen groups, weigh days, and treatment logs before ship. Pair with the FCR calculator and break-even tool when you price a load.
Small farm & homestead
Looking for a farm management app for a small farm or homestead cattle? You still need tags, shots, and a sale date. Cattly does not force enterprise pricing on a ten-head place.
Dairy + beef mix
Milking cows stay on the same inventory. Milk weights and lactations live in dairy management; dry cows and heifers still show in the herd list.
Group examples that match real sorts
Group cattle the way you already sort them
Whiteboards lie after the second move of the week. In Cattly you create groups for pens, pastures, or sale lots and move animals when you sort. Head counts stay attached to the group, not to someone's memory.
Running rotational grazing? Pair groups with pasture management so the flock and the paddock stay in sync.
Weights and treatments on the same animal
Inventory without weights is a head count. Inventory with weigh-ins tells you who is paying the feed bill. Log batch or individual weights, then check average daily gain when you want the math without a spreadsheet.
Weight tracking
Record chute weights with dates. Pull history per animal or pen. Use the cattle weight tracking guide if you are still deciding how often to weigh.
Treatments & withdrawals
Log vaccines and meds on the animal. Before a sale, check withdrawal status so you do not ship too early. Practice with the withdrawal time calculator and keep longer history in Cattly.
How to get herd management software working in one afternoon
You do not need a six-month software project. Load active cattle, make a few groups, and start logging from the next chore day.
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1. Create your farm and add animals
Sign up, name the farm, then add cattle one by one or import a CSV. Tag, sex, breed, birth date, and status are enough to start.
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2. Group animals the way you work
Pens, pastures, breeding lots, sale lots. Move animals between groups when you sort instead of rewriting a paper list.
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3. Log weights and treatments as they happen
Batch weigh-ins and health events stick to the animal. That is how you get ADG later and a clean treatment history before shipping.
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4. Print IDs and run inventory when you need a count
QR profiles help at the chute. Inventory by status or group covers insurance, lenders, and sale barn paperwork.
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5. Add breeding, pasture, and money when you are ready
Use cow-calf software for breeding season, pasture tools for rotations, and farm tax reporting when sales and expenses need Schedule F categories. Same herd.
Herd management vs paper, Excel, and paid livestock apps
Spreadsheets work until two people edit different copies. Generic farm apps bury cattle under crop fields. Paid livestock management software often looks fine until the per-head invoice arrives. Cattly keeps cattle inventory in the center, then layers breeding, feed, and taxes when you need them.
| Need | Paper / Excel | Typical paid apps | Cattly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared live inventory | Usually one person's file | Yes, on a paid seat | Crew sees the same list, free |
| Group moves after sorts | Rewrite the sheet | Often yes | Move animals between groups |
| Weight + treatment history | Separate tabs, easy to miss | Common on higher tiers | On the animal record |
| Head limits | None (until chaos) | Free tiers often cap at 50 | Unlimited |
| Cost at scale | "Free" until bad data costs you | Monthly or per head | $0, unlimited head |
For a wider free-app comparison, see free cattle record keeping apps and our FarmKeep alternative write-up.
Tools that sit next to your herd list
Free calculators for the numbers you still want to check by hand, plus the product pages for breeding and grass.
Sources & notes
Official animal identification and disease-traceability rules vary by country and change over time. US producers should confirm current requirements with USDA APHIS livestock traceability and follow Beef Quality Assurance guidance for treatment records. Cattly helps you store what you did; it is not legal or veterinary advice.
Page maintained by the Cattly team. Product behavior matches the live cattle inventory, groups, weights, and health modules in the Cattly app.
Herd management software FAQ
Answers for people comparing herd management apps, cattle record keeping tools, and free livestock management software.
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