Getting Your Herd Into Cattle360: Setup, Adding Animals, and CSV Import

The hardest part of any new herd software is the blank screen on day one. You've signed up, you're ready to go, and now you're looking at an empty account wondering how you're going to get 300 head of cattle in there without spending a weekend on data entry. Good news: you won't have to. Here's the path from empty account to fully loaded herd.

Step 1: Set Up Your Farm

Start in Settings > Farm Settings. Set your farm name and, importantly, your livestock type — this determines the animal types, sexes, and features that show up throughout the app. Cattle360 supports cattle, and if you run goats or sheep, it speaks their language too. This one setting shapes everything that follows, so it's worth doing first.

Step 2: Create a Couple of Groups

Before you load animals, set up a few groups that mirror how you actually organize your operation — by pen, pasture, or production stage. You can hand-pick animals into static groups or let smart groups fill themselves based on rules. You don't need many to start; you can always add more as you go. Having a group or two ready means you can drop animals into the right bucket as you add them.

Step 3: Add Your Animals

There are two ways in, and most people use both.

One at a Time

Click Add Animal from the Dashboard, a group, or the group dashboard. The only truly required pieces are a primary identifier (at least one of ear tag, EID, freeze brand, name, tattoo, or other tag), the animal type, and sex (for calves). Everything else — color, birth date and weight, sire and dam, acquisition details, group membership, even a photo — is optional and can be filled in now or later. This is the way to go for adding a new calf on your phone in the pasture, or when you're getting started with a small herd.

The Whole Herd at Once: CSV Import

Got a spreadsheet of your cattle already? Import it. From the animal list or a group view, choose Import, pick your CSV file, and map your columns to Cattle360's fields — your "Tag" column to Ear Tag, your "DOB" to Birth Date, and so on. Review the preview to make sure it looks right, then import, and your whole herd lands as animal records in one shot. Common columns include ear tag or EID, animal type, sex, color, birth date, and birth weight.

Do a Small Test First

The single best piece of advice for a big import: start small. Import a handful of animals first, confirm the column mapping came through correctly, and check that the records look the way you expect. Once you've verified the process on five head, run the rest with confidence. Clean your spreadsheet before you start — remove blank rows, fix inconsistent spellings, standardize your dates, and save it as UTF-8 so names with special characters come through cleanly.

Optional, But Worth It

• Set up pastures if your plan includes them, and assign animals as you go.
• Invite your team so hired hands and family can record data from their own devices.
• Turn on two-factor authentication for a little extra account security.

None of these are required to get rolling. If you want to move fast, just do the first three steps — farm settings, groups, animals — and grow into the rest.

Tips for a Smooth Start

• Record the EID on animals if you use electronic tags — it's what lets you scan them at the chute later.
• Don't chase perfection on day one. Get the identifiers and types in; fill in weights, lineage, and history over time.
• Mark your key groups to show on the Dashboard so your most-used views are one tap away.
• Explore gradually. Start with animals and groups, then layer in breeding, health, financials, and markets as you're ready.

An empty account is only empty for an afternoon. Get your farm set, your groups built, and your herd imported, and Cattle360 starts working for you from there.

Ready to load your herd? Log in to Cattle360 and start with Farm Settings.