Recording your breeding data in iLivestock is straight forward, you can do this as a group to save time and /or as individuals for that extra detail. First of all make sure you have all your sheep added to your account, including any on-farm tups/sires.

Next its best to add your breeding ewes into a single or several breeding groups, so you can update as a group or as individuals as you go along.

Each year a new breeding record should be created against your breeding ewes, to track progress from the tup/sire going in and up to logging lamb births, then completing the breeding cycle and generating a yearly breeding report.

Step 1: Once you have your females in a group you can then start the Breeding record for the group.

To do this, find and open the group and then tap the 'Action' button on the bottom right of the screen (blue circle with arrow icons) to bring up the group actions.

Step 2: From the Group Actions list tap 'Breeding' to open the Breeding actions.

Step 3: From the Breeding actions, select 'Set Sire or AI' this will bring up a new page for you to select a sire and add the date the sire went in.

Step 4: If your sire is on your farm and included in your flock list, tap the 'From iLivestock' option to generate a list of active sires for you to select from

Step 5: From the list either search for a sire passport number (last 4-6 digits) or scroll down the list to find and select the relevant sire by tapping it.

(Note!: You CAN add off farm sires from this view - only animals that have been moved off as a 'Sale', 'Death' or specifically 'archived' can not be selected)

Step 6: Once the sire is selected it will be confirmed by being added to the Breeding record screen

Step 7: Now add in the date the tup/sire went in with the female group to the 'Male In' field using the date picker wheel that will appear.

Step 8: An automatic 'Due from this date' will be generated and you can tap 'Save' in the top right hand corner. The Breeding record for this group has now been created.

Step 9: You will now be back in the group view and the next step will be to add the date the sire went out. When you are ready to add this info, tap the action button (bottom right) and then select 'Breeding' from the actions menu

Step 10: From the 'Breeding' menu select 'Set Male Out Date'

Step 11: This will then generate a new page for you to add the date using date picker wheel and then tap 'Set Male Out Date' to save.

Step 12: From your group of breeding females - if you tap the chevron on any of them to open their Animal Summary page, you will now see they have a breeding record created under the Breeding heading and the 'Sire IN and Out dates' are showing on the record.

Now you have started a breeding cycle you can log your Ultra Sound Scan results as a group and individually.

Step 13: You'll note once the 'Sire In' and 'Sire Out' dates have been added the group icons will change to the 'Inseminated' icon as shown in picture 13.

Now we can add the scan results for the group. At this point, if we know most of the group only have scanned positive for 1 lamb, you can tap and select all the animals in the group and de-select the ones you know have twins or triplets and come back to them in the next step.

Note: To select, simply tap the animal and the animal card will get a green surround - tap again to de-select.

Step 14: With the relevant females only expecting 1 lamb selected (their card is green) next tap the Action button > from the actions menu select > Breeding and then from the breeding menu select > 'Set Scan Result'

Step 15: Now on the 'Scan Result' page select the number 1 (or relevant number for the majority of the breeding ewes) and then tap 'Save' in the top right hand corner of the screen.

You have now added the ultra scan result of 1 to the majority of the group.

Step 16: Once you have added the group scan results, the animal card icon will then update again to the 'Heart' icon to show the animal is pregnant. You can now de-select the animals in the group by tapping them and the green surround will go.

If some cattle have scan results for 2 or more lambs, you may just want to update their records individually.

Step 17: To update the animals that have twins or triplets - you can either repeat the steps 13, 14 and 15 if you have more than a a few animals with twins or triplets or you can update scan results individually.

To update individually tap the chevron on the animal card, and then this will open the 'Animal Summary' page.

Step 18: You'll see the summary page is broken into headings, under 'Breeding' tap the pink band which is the 'Breeding Record'.

Step: 19: Now the Breeding Record is open, scroll down the page to 'Ultrasound Scan Result' where you can tap the relevant scan result number to update the scan info.

Step 20: Once saved this will take you back to the animal summary page where you'll see your breeding summary has updated accordingly.

Step 21: Go back to your group view to see all your animals are now updated with the 'Heart' icon and if you tap 'Visual' in the group view at the top of the page, it will re-order animals via their passport number (Visual ID)

Now you've added your sire details and scan results, its time to log the lamb births.

Step 1: To log a lamb birth, search for the Ewe/DAM (using last 4-6 passport numbers).

Tap the chevron on the DAM card to open the DAM summary page and then tap the 'Breeding record' (pink band under breeding) to open the breeding record.

(If you haven't yet created a breeding record - see the top of this guide for how to create a Breeding Record)

Step 2: Next scroll down the page to find the 'Offspring' section and then tap the blue text that says 'Tap here or EID scan tag to add' and this will then bring up the 'Add Offspring' options:

Step 3: 'Add existing iLivestock animal' - this will bring up a list of lamb aged sheep from your flock for you to add to the DAM Breeding record - use this option if you've already created a list of lambs and you want to attach to the relevant DAM.

***This is especially relevant if you are using the Sheep Tag Series feature**

Step 4: From your list of lambs, select the relevant one to add to the breeding record by tapping it.

Step 5: The lamb will then sit within the Breeding Record view. You can then add more lambs as required to the record

Step 6: 'Add new animal' - this option will generate the 'Add Sheep' form for you to enter the details of the new lamb and save.

Step 7: On this screen, you can either have your stick reader attached and scan the EID tag of the new born lamb, which will generate the corresponding Visual ID or you can type in a Visual ID which will then generate the corresponding EID for your new lamb.

Simply scan the EID for it to populate the EID field - if the EID already exists the app will notify you. Once the EID is scanned it will generate the corresponding Visual ID (VID)

OR

Type in the lamb Visual ID in the 'Official Animal ID field - you'll know this from your flock sequence number. Next enter the DOB from the calendar picker wheel in the Date of Birth field.

Step 8: Select the lamb gender, add a birth weight, check the breed and amend if necessary, lambs added to a breeding record will automatically take the breed of the ewe mother. Lastly assign the lamb to the correct holding and tap 'Record' at the bottom of the page to save the lamb details.

Step 9: The new lamb will also be added to the ewe breeding record and you'll see it sitting in the offspring section, you'll note the offspring quantity will also update as you add lambs to the record.

Step 10: Note the lambs will automatically take their DOB from the 'Birthing Date' field if a date is assigned there. In this case you will not need to add a DOB to the lamb record this will update automatically.

Step 11: Once you've saved the lamb details it will take you back to the Breeding record where you can tap the 'Add more information' button to add more lambing detail.

Step 12: Complete the birthing difficulty, tab any relevant toggles for Birth Assistance, Mastitis etc and then tap the relevant result for milk info and add any related notes and then tap 'Confirm' in the top right hand corner to save the information.

If you have added a lamb to the wrong breeding record, its easy to remove and add the correct one. Simply find the ewe mother, open the ewe animal summary, scroll to the Breeding Record - pink band and tap to open the record.

Within the record scroll to find the Offspring section and you'll find the associated lamb card there. Swipe left on the card of the lamb you want to remove to reveal the red Delete option. Tap the red Delete to remove the lamb from the record.

Note: Doing this does not delete the lamb or the record. You can now add the correct lamb to the record.

If you have added a sire incorrectly to the breeding record, simply swipe the sire card to the left and then tap the red DELETE option that is revealed. The sire IN and OUT dates will remain in place and you can simply tap to add a new sire to the breeding record as per the steps above.

Find and open the ewe that you want to delete the breeding record from. Scroll to the Breeding Record on the ewe animal summary page - this shows as a pink band.

Swipe the pink band left to reveal the red 'Delete' option and then tap the red 'Delete'

**Note: Deleting a breeding record is permanent and cannot be undone**

Once your lamb births are complete and all your lambing data has been recorded correctly, you can close your breeding record for the year.

Step 1: Find and open the breeding group

Step 2: Tap the 'Action' button, to open the Group Actions menu

Step 3: From the Group Actions menu tap 'Breeding'

Step 4: From the Breeding options tap 'Close Breeding Cycle'

Step 5: A warning message will pop up, asking if you are sure, go ahead and tap'Close' if you are sure everything required to be logged for this lambing season has been recorded

Step 6: The Breeding record on each ewe in the group will update to 'Closed' status

Note: You'll need to close your existing breeding cycle before you can open a new one. Please take extra care to ensure you have logged everything you need. Once a Breeding Record is closed it can not be opened again for adding or amending data)

Step 1: Find and open the animal summary page of ewe with the breeding record you want to close and tap the Breeding record - pink band

Step 2: Scroll right to the end of the Breeding record screen to find the red Banner that says Finish This Breeding and then tap the banner.

Step 3: A confirmation screen will appear for you to select Cancel or Finish - if you are happy you have logged all your breeding records correctly for this ewe, go ahead and tap Finish and this will close the breeding record.

Online: Use the chat icon in Admin on the app or bottom right on the web dashboard