How to Keep Goat Farm Records

A practical guide for goat farmers in Uganda: what to record about each goat, how to set up a simple record book, and the daily and weekly routines that keep records usable.

Published 2026-10-17

When a herd is small, it is tempting to manage it from memory. Once kiddings, treatments, feed purchases and sales happen in the same month, memory stops being reliable. Written records let you see which doe kids regularly, which goat keeps needing treatment, and what the farm really spent and earned. Ugandan goat production guidance treats record keeping as part of good management, alongside feeding, breeding, housing and health.

Why accurate records matter

• They show what happened to each animal, not an impression of the whole herd.
• They support health decisions: what was given, when, by whom, and the date the advised waiting period ends.
• They make income and spending visible, so a problem can be noticed early.
• They give a buyer or a lender something you can show, not only describe.
• They help when an animal is sold, dies or is disputed.

Records only help if they are honest. A record written to look good leads to decisions based on something that did not happen.

Start with animal identification

Nothing can be recorded reliably until each goat is identified the same way every time. Use one identification method for the whole farm — for example an ear tag, a collar tag or a painted number — and write the identity down the day the animal is born or arrives. If a tag is lost, record the replacement against the old identity rather than starting a new animal.

• Identity (tag number or name) and sex.
• Date of birth, or date and place of purchase.
• Breed or breed type, as far as it is known.
• Dam and sire identity, where known.
• The date the animal leaves the farm, and why: sold, slaughtered, died or lost.

Birth and reproduction records

For each doe, record every mating or service date, the buck used, the kidding date, the number of kids born, the number born alive, and the sex of each kid. Over several seasons this shows which does kid regularly and raise their kids. Always link each kid to its dam: a kid recorded without a dam tells you nothing later about the dam.

Health and treatment history

For every treatment, record the date, the animal, what you observed, the product used, the dose as instructed, who gave it, and the waiting (withdrawal) period stated on the product label or by the veterinary officer before milk or meat from that animal may be used or sold. Ugandan guidance on appropriate antimicrobial use in goat and sheep farming places treatment records and observing withdrawal periods among the farmer's responsibilities.

• Vaccinations and deworming: date, product, animals covered, next date planned.
• Treatments: date, animal, sign observed, product, dose as instructed, who gave it.
• Withdrawal period: copy it exactly from the approved product label and the qualified veterinarian's instructions, then write the date it ends. Never estimate it yourself. If the label is unclear, the instructions conflict, or the medicine is being used outside its approved instructions, ask a qualified veterinarian for the withdrawal period before using milk or meat.
• Deaths: date, animal, what was observed, and whether a veterinary or extension officer saw the animal.

Diagnosis, the choice of medicine, doses and withdrawal periods are decisions for a qualified veterinary or extension officer. This guide does not recommend any treatment.

Feeding records

Feed is easy to overlook in records because much of it is grazed, cut or collected rather than bought. Record what was bought (date, item, quantity, amount paid, supplier) and, separately, what was given to which group of goats. A short weekly note of the main forage and any supplement, mineral or salt is enough to help explain a later change in condition or growth.

Most feed is given to a group, not to one goat. Record it against the group. Do not divide a group's feed or a farm expense among individual goats unless you actually measured what each animal received — an equal share is a guess, not a record.

Weight, estimates and body condition

These are three different records, and they should never be mixed in the same column:

• Measured weight: the animal weighed on a scale, written in kilograms with the date.
• Estimated weight: a figure worked out from a measurement such as heart girth using a tape or chart. Write it down as an estimate and note the method used.
• Body condition score: a score for how much flesh and fat the animal carries, given by feeling the back and ribs. It is not a weight and cannot be converted into one.

Record on a fixed schedule — for example at birth, at weaning and then monthly — using the same method each time. The value is in the trend for one animal over time, compared like with like.

Sales and expenses

Record every money movement with its date. For a sale: date, animal identity, buyer, basis of the price, amount received, and whether it was paid in full. For an expense: date, item, quantity, amount, supplier, and — only when it really belongs to one goat, such as a treatment for that goat — the animal it was for. Keeping receipts together by month and entering them weekly is often more realistic than entering each one immediately.

A simple record set you can start this week

Four books, or four sections of one book, can cover the main records: animal register, breeding and kidding, health and treatment, money in and out. The entries below are fictional, invented only to show the layout. They are not real animals and not benchmarks.

• Animal register (fictional example): G-014 | female | born 12 Mar 2026 | dam G-003, sire B-002 | on farm.
• Breeding and kidding (fictional example): G-003 | served 2 Feb 2026 by B-002 | kidded 3 Jul 2026 | 2 kids born, 2 alive (1 male, 1 female).
• Health and treatment (fictional example): 18 Jul 2026 | G-003 | dewormed with the product the visiting officer named | withdrawal end date copied from the officer's instruction | given by farm owner.
• Money in and out (fictional example): 20 Jul 2026 | sold G-009 | buyer, price basis and amount received recorded; 22 Jul 2026 | bought mineral salt for the whole herd | amount and supplier recorded, not divided among goats.

A realistic daily and weekly routine

• Daily: note anything unusual — a sick or limping goat, a kidding, a death, a treatment, feed bought.
• Weekly: copy the week's notes into the right books, file receipts, and check every kidding, treatment and sale has been entered.
• Monthly: count the animals and compare the count with the register. Explain any difference by finding the missing event, not by changing the count.
• Yearly: summarise kiddings, deaths, sales and spending, and use them when deciding which animals to keep.

Common recording mistakes

• No animal identity, so events cannot be attached to an animal.
• Recording only good events — deaths, losses and failed matings are the ones that change decisions.
• Writing records weeks later from memory.
• Overwriting a wrong entry instead of adding a dated correction.
• Writing an estimated weight or a condition score as if it were a scale weight.
• Keeping only one copy. A book that is lost or gets wet takes the herd history with it.

Paper, phone or both

Paper records work and cost little, but they are hard to summarise and easy to lose. Farm software can keep a copy off the farm and do some of the adding up. HERD IQ Livestock, for example, keeps a record for each animal, with its health and treatment history, breeding events and sales recorded against it; it shows a cost against an individual animal only when that cost was recorded for that animal, and does not share out herd or group costs among goats. Whichever you use, the habit is the same: record the event when it happens, against the animal or group it belongs to.

This guide is general educational information for farmers and is not veterinary advice.

This guide is general farming guidance, not veterinary advice. Consult a qualified veterinary or extension officer about your own animals.