01
Structured identity fields
Tag number, breed, sex, species, and farm assignment are real, validated fields rather than free-text notes, so search, filtering, and reporting actually work.
Animal Records
One record per animal. No more re-explaining the herd from memory.
Boma gives every animal a structured profile that carries its identity, status, and history forward automatically, so nobody has to reconstruct what happened from a notebook, a group chat, or someone’s memory.
Structured
Tag number, breed, sex, species, and status as real fields, not free text.
Connected
Health, milk, and breeding entries attach to the animal automatically.
Farm-scoped
Every record belongs to one farm and stays isolated from every other tenant.
Animal Records
Animal Profile
Identity, status, and history in one view
Tag number, breed, sex, species, and current status sit alongside every health, milk, and breeding event ever logged for that animal.
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What This Feature Does
In plain terms
Animal Records is the identity layer underneath everything else Boma does. Every animal on the farm gets a single profile that holds its tag number, breed, sex, species, current status, and an optional photo, and that profile is the anchor point every other module attaches to — milk entries, health events, vaccinations, breeding activity, and reminders all reference the same animal ID.
Instead of separate lists living in a notebook, a spreadsheet, and someone’s phone, the farm works from one canonical set of animal profiles. A worker searching for tag 042 in the field sees the same record a manager reviews from the office and the same record an admin audits at renewal time.
Status is a first-class field, not a note buried in a comment. Animals move between healthy, sick, and sold states explicitly, and that status drives what shows up in dashboards, alerts, and reports elsewhere in the platform.
Key Capabilities
What you actually get
Each capability below is available today inside Boma, not a roadmap promise. Together they form the working core of this feature.
02
Photo-backed profiles
Attach a photo to an animal directly from the mobile app or the web dashboard so field staff can visually confirm identity before acting on a record.
03
Automatic event history
Health records, milk entries, breeding events, and reminders tied to an animal appear on its profile automatically — no manual cross-linking required.
04
Fast tag-based lookup
Search and filter the herd by tag number or status from both the web dashboard and the mobile app, so a worker in the field can pull up a record as fast as an office manager can.
05
One record, every module
Because milk, health, and breeding entries reference the same animal_id, there is never a second, disconnected copy of an animal’s data drifting out of sync.
06
Role-aware editing
Who can create, update, or reassign an animal record is controlled by farm role, so field staff can log activity without being able to quietly rewrite core identity fields.
07
Status-driven visibility
Sick, quarantined, or sold animals surface differently across dashboards and alerts automatically, because status lives on the record instead of in someone’s head.
Why It Matters
The operational cost this feature actually removes
Most livestock operations do not lose track of animals because nobody cares — they lose track because the record of what happened to an animal is scattered across a paper notebook, a few phone photos, a WhatsApp thread, and whichever spreadsheet was open that week. When a new worker joins or a vet visits, someone has to reconstruct the story from memory before real work can start.
A single structured record removes that reconstruction tax. When an animal’s tag number, status, and full history live in one place, a manager can answer "what happened to 042 last month" in seconds instead of asking around, and a vet reviewing a sick animal can see prior treatments before making a new call instead of repeating one that already failed.
No re-explaining the herd
New team members and visiting vets can review an animal’s history directly instead of relying on someone else’s memory of it.
Status changes are visible immediately
Marking an animal sick or sold updates every dashboard and alert that depends on that status, without a manual follow-up message.
Fewer duplicate or conflicting entries
Because every module writes to the same animal record, there is no second spreadsheet quietly drifting out of sync with reality.
A record that survives staff turnover
Animal history stays with the farm, not with whichever worker happened to keep the best notes.
Use Cases By Role
How each person on the farm actually uses this
Boma is built around real farm roles. Here is how this feature shows up differently depending on who is signed in.
Owner
Reviews herd composition without walking the pens
An owner can open the animal list, filter by status, and see exactly how many animals are healthy, sick, or recently sold — a view that used to require a physical walkthrough or a phone call to the manager.
Manager
Assigns follow-up work against a specific animal
When an animal’s status changes to sick, the manager can see who last touched the record, review recent history, and coordinate the next step directly against that animal’s profile.
Worker
Confirms identity in the field before logging activity
A field worker can search by tag number, confirm the animal from its photo, and log a health check or milk entry against the correct record without walking back to the office to check a notebook.
Vet
Reviews full treatment history before a new visit
Before recommending a new treatment, a visiting vet can see every prior health event for that animal in one timeline, instead of relying on the farm’s memory of what was tried before.
Admin
Audits record completeness across the farm
A platform admin supporting the account can see how many animal records exist, how recently they were updated, and whether the farm is using the record structure as intended.
How It Works
Step by step, in practice
Getting an animal into Boma and keeping its record current follows the same simple path whether the entry happens from a desk or a paddock.
- 1
Add the animal with core identity fields
An authorized team member creates a profile with tag number, breed, sex, species, and initial status — the minimum needed to make the record useful immediately.
- 2
Attach a photo when convenient
A photo can be added at creation or later from mobile, giving field staff a fast visual check before acting on a record.
- 3
Log activity against the animal as it happens
Health checks, milk entries, and breeding events are recorded against the animal’s ID, building its timeline automatically rather than requiring a separate reconciliation step.
- 4
Update status as conditions change
Marking an animal sick, quarantined, or sold updates its record immediately, which in turn updates every dashboard, alert, and report that depends on that status.
- 5
Review the full history whenever it is needed
Anyone with access to the record can open the animal’s profile and see its complete history in order, without needing to ask who logged what.
Data & Control
Who can see it, who can change it, and who is accountable for it
Animal records belong to a single farm and are isolated from every other farm on the platform through row-level security enforced at the database layer, not just in the application UI. There is no cross-farm visibility by default, and no configuration mistake in the app can accidentally expose one farm’s herd to another.
Within a farm, who can create, edit, or reassign an animal record depends on role. Field staff can log activity and update status; broader edits to core identity fields are reserved for roles with farm management responsibility, so the record stays trustworthy even as more people touch it.
Farm-level isolation
Row-level security ties every animal record to one farm, enforced at the database layer.
Role-gated editing
Creating and updating records respects each user’s farm role rather than being open to anyone signed in.
Attributed changes
Status changes and record updates are tied to the user who made them, not stored anonymously.
Consistent structure over time
Because fields are structured rather than free text, records stay comparable and reportable as the herd grows.
Business Outcomes
What changes operationally once this is in place
These are the practical shifts farms describe once the feature is part of daily use, not a marketing estimate.
Less time reconstructing history
Nobody has to ask around or dig through old messages to understand what happened to a specific animal.
Better handoffs between people
New workers, vets, and managers can pick up an animal’s story from the record instead of a verbal briefing.
Fewer conflicting entries
One shared record per animal means there is no second spreadsheet quietly disagreeing with reality.
Clearer herd-level visibility
Owners and managers can see herd composition and status at a glance instead of piecing it together manually.
Questions
Common questions about this feature
Specific answers for teams evaluating whether this part of Boma fits how the farm actually runs.
Can we track animals we no longer own, like sold or deceased stock?
Yes. Status changes like "sold" keep the animal in the historical record rather than deleting it, so past activity stays available for reporting even after the animal has left the active herd.
Does every team member see every animal?
Visibility follows farm membership and role. Anyone active on the farm can see the herd, but who can create or edit records depends on their assigned role, set by the farm owner or manager.
What happens if two people update the same animal at the same time?
Each update is attributed to the user who made it and applied in order, so the record reflects the latest state without silently overwriting history from other modules like health or milk events.
Can we bulk import an existing herd list?
Farms coming from spreadsheets typically onboard their herd during setup with support from the Boma team, so records start structured instead of needing cleanup later.
Do photos count against a storage limit that affects performance?
Photos are stored and served independently of your record data, so adding images to animal profiles does not slow down search or list views elsewhere in the app.
Related Features
Works alongside the rest of the platform
Ready To Try It
Give every animal a record the whole team can trust.
Start free and bring your herd into one structured system, or talk to us about migrating from spreadsheets.