New Calf Action

Watch this video to get a brief overview of the New Calf action. The text below goes into more detail.

The New Calf action is used to enter new calves when they are born or if you need to record an aborted calf. Make sure you use this action instead of the New Animal action for recording calves since it is designed specifically for this situation and will automatically perform additional calculations related to the calf, dam, and sire that the New Animal action does not do.

If a cow has twins, each calf should be entered as a separate New Calf action. Herdly will recognize that they are twins automatically.

Starting the Action

This action can be used on both computers and mobile devices. To learn how to start an action, please see Actions.

First, find and select the dam in the animal list. Then you can start this action. It will only be available if exactly one female is selected.

On mobile devices, the New Calf action is found under the Animal tool bar item.

Action Fields

All of this action's fields are listed below. If any are required to have a value, that is noted. If there is any special information about the field that you need to know for this action, it is also noted. More general information about all of the fields can be found in the Field Descriptions topic.

Each time you use this action, Herdly will look to see if the default calving year (see Ranch Setup) is incorrect and offer to update it for you. The logic works like this: if the default calving year is not the current calendar year, or if it is the same year but the month is December, then the default calving year might be incorrect.

If you ask Herdly not to update the default calving year when prompted, Herdly will not perform this check again until the next calendar month. This information is saved globally so other devices won't perform the check until the next calendar month either. You can always change the default calving year manually in the Ranch Settings window on a computer.

Herdly will show a warning at the top of the action if it looks like the calf will be twin or triplet. This helps to ensure you don't enter the same calf twice by accident.

  • Dam.
    • Dam. The dam will automatically be filled in based on the cow you selected before starting this action. It cannot be changed in the action. You can use the i button to see the dam's history.
    • Foster Dam. If the calf has a foster dam, click the ... button (computer) or tap the field (mobile device). You'll be able to find and select the foster dam. Note that the dam must already exist in Herdly before you can use her. You can also clear this field. On the computer, click the ... button and then click Clear in the Animal Chooser window. On a mobile device, tap the clear button in the field.
  • Sire(s).
    • Sire(s). If you know the sire, click the ... button (computer) or tap the field (mobile device). You'll be able to find and select the sire. Note that the sire must already exist in Herdly before you can use him. You can also clear this field. On the computer, click the ... button and then click Clear in the Animal Chooser window. On a mobile device, tap the clear button in the field. If you select a sire, the sire type field will automatically be set to Individual. If you aren't sure exactly which bull is the sire, but you know it is one of several bulls, you can select each of them to form a sire group.
  • Calf IDs.
    • Tag. Required. The tag will be pre-filled based on the preferences you set up in the Ranch Settings window, but you can change it if you want.
    • This section may have other identification fields, depending on what optional fields you've set up in the Ranch Settings window. If there are additional fields, they can be used or left blank.
  • Birth Information.
    • Birth Date. Required.
    • Date Type.
    • Birth Weight.
    • Weight Type.
  • Attributes.
    • Gender.
    • Color.
    • Breed. The breed will be calculated based on the breed composition of the dam and sire. It will be updated each time you change the sire. You can also override it if you want.
    • Horn Status.
  • Calving Information.
    • Birth Type. Required.
    • Calving Ease Score.
    • Calving Assist Reason.
    • Death Cause. This field is only available if the birth type is not Live. The death fields related to the calf will automatically be filled in by Herdly in that case.
    • Vigor Score.
    • Location.
    • GPS Location. Only available on mobile devices. If you tap Get Location, Herdly will obtain your current GPS location and store it with the birth info of the calf.
    • Calving Year. Required. The default for this field comes from the defaults part of the Ranch Settings window.
    • Calving Season.
  • Note.
  • Picture.

When you have finished filling in the fields in this action, use the Save button to save your information. The new calf will be created. Performance calculations for the dam and sire are also updated.

If you made a mistake when using this action, you can correct it with the Edit Animal action.

If you are set up (in the Ranch Settings window) so that Herdly automatically creates CCIA events, Herdly will attempt to create a birth date event for the calf. It will only be successful if you have entered your CCIA account information in the Ranch Settings window and if the calf has an RFID tag and birthdate.