Free Cattle Record Book
Updated: Oct 16
Good farm record keeping helps your farm business plan, track what's working, and what's not, identify trends, make decisions to improve your business and to do realistic forecasting. This valuable information helps you make decisions on which practices and methods work and can better predict expected yields, costs and sales.
For cattle ranchers, keeping good cattle records is critical to track animal health, vaccination records, production, breeding and calving. Having accurate records is also important for many food compliance regulations and make it easier to borrow money, get grants and complete tax returns.
Read more about getting started with livestock record keeping.
What cattle records should you keep?
Keeping detailed cattle or cow/calf records for your herd and for individual animals is a critical part of any cattle rancher's job. Here's a list of some of the key livestock records that you might want to be tracking for your cattle business.
Key cattle records include:
Ranch tasks and activities performed
Pasture management and health records
Rainfall records
Pasture planting records
Soil test results
Pasture amendment and treatment records
Pasture fertilizer records
Pasture harvest records for hay production
Pest inspection records
Pasture treatments records
Grazing records
Individual animal records
Animal identification details
Individual animal measurements
Cow breeding history
Cow calving and production history
Animal pedigree and genealogy
Herd breeding and A.I. Records
Pregnancy check and pregnancy status tracking
Tracking herd feeding details
Herd feed supplements
Feed costs and receipts
Herd measurement records
Herd vaccination/treatment record
Tracking year-over-year livestock inventory
Detailed Financial records
Sales, receipts and income records, including cattle sales and other income.
Production costs and other expenses
How to keep your cattle records
Keeping quality cattle or cow/calf records can be as simple as managing a paper file for each animal in your herd, using a custom computer spreadsheet, using a printable cattle herd record book or pre-built cattle log book or leveraging a farm management software application.
There are pros and cons to each of these methods. The critical thing is that you keep detailed records for your herd. We recommend choosing the cattle record keeping method that you’re most likely to maintain for the long term. By using the key cattle record keeping categories that we've stated above it will help you give you key information and help you manage your cattle operation more efficiently.
While some farmers prefer portable cattle notebooks they can take with them in the field, many would rather use an online mobile or web application to keep their records. Unlike paper records and spreadsheets, farm management software streamlines the data capture for your cattle records, provides automated reporting to simplify compliance and decision making and keeps your records safe and secure so you don't need to worry about loosing your paper log book.
Free Printable Cattle Keeping Log Book & Forms
While we certainly believe that using a computer based cattle record keeping system provides the best benefit and value to your cattle operation (we're a little biased) we understand that some producers may prefer to use a paper cattle log book.
To help make your life easier we've created this free printable cattle record keeping book. It's packed with over 70 pages of free printable livestock record keeping forms covering all the critical areas we listed above, plus free conversion tables and more. Check out this free printable cattle herd record book to help you to keep track of all your critical cattle animal and herd records.
Free Printable Cattle Records Book
Simply download the free printable cattle log book PDF and print it. It's designed to be printed landscape (8.5 x 11" paper), double-sided and conveniently folded into a convenient book. Once printed, simply bind it or staple it and fold it into a handy 'pocket sized' book you can take on the go.
Cattle Record Keeping Book
.pdf
Download PDF • 1.35MB
If you need additional printable livestock forms to insert for your individual animal records (ID, measurements, breeding and pedigree) you can download the 4 page printable livestock records form insert here.
Individual Cattle Records
.pdf
Download PDF • 158KB
If you want to streamline your cattle record keeping, or try an online cattle management software, check out our cattle record keeping software. We offer a free, no hassle 14 day trial or our complete farm and livestock record keeping & management software designed to help you run a more efficient, productive, and profitable cattle business. With Farmbrite you'll find all the features you need to be better organized, keep better records, manage your resources, track production, identify trends, gain valuable insights, and increase efficiency and profits.
Farmbrite provides an all-in-one farm software platform designed to help modern farmers and ranchers know more, grow more, and sell more, all from one easy to use place. Plan, track, sell, and improve with our integrated farm & livestock record keeping, planning, management, tracking, sales, and reporting software to run a thriving agriculture business.
To learn more about how Farmbrite can help your cattle operation keep better livestock records head over to www.farmbrite.com and start a free 2 week trial.
This article and cattle record keeping book was written and created by our knowledgeable staff of farmers and ranchers at Farmbrite. Thanks for reading and happy farming.