Getting started with Throf: set up your sheep and goat farm

To get started with Throf, download the app from the App Store or Google Play, or open app.throf.com in a browser. Then create your farm, add your sheep and goats with a number and a tag colour, or import them all from Excel, and sort them into pens. Next, record your first vaccinations and matings, add your workers with permissions, and check the dashboard each day.

Throf is a herd management app for sheep, goats and camels. It runs on iOS, Android and the web (app.throf.com). Small herds of up to 25 head can use the free plan. This guide covers sheep and goat farms and follows the order most breeders use in their first week. Do the steps in this order and the farm's history will be complete from day one.

Step 1: Download Throf and open your account

You can use Throf on three platforms, and they all work on the same farm data:

• iPhone: download Throf from the App Store.
• Android: download Throf from Google Play.
• Computer: open app.throf.com in a browser. A wide screen is easier for importing a herd or reading reports.

The app interface is in Arabic and English. Many owners use the phone in the pen and the web app in the office, and their workers use their own phones.

Step 2: Create the farm and its pens

Create the farm before you add any animals. Then create your groups (pens) the same way the farm is laid out. One common layout for a sheep and goat farm:

• Mothers (ewes and does)
• Breeding males (rams and bucks)
• Young stock and weaned lambs and kids
• Fattening
• Isolation pen for sick or newly bought animals

Don't create too many groups at the start. Four or five pens that match the real fences are better than fifteen nobody uses. When every animal has a group, you can record a meal, a vaccination or a stage change for the whole pen at once rather than head by head. For layout ideas, see our guide to organizing pens and groups.

Step 3: Add your animals

In Throf, an animal's identity is the number and the tag colour together. So number 120 on a yellow tag and number 120 on a red tag are two different animals. This lets you reuse numbers across colours, by year or by breed for example. Read more in livestock numbering and ear tag colours.

You can add animals in three ways:

The more you fill in, the more the app can do for you. The birth date and sex drive the automatic classification: unweaned, young stock, adults, mothers and breeding males. The mother and father build the pedigree, and the weight starts the animal's growth history. If your records are in a spreadsheet now, Excel vs a livestock app explains how to tidy the sheet before you import it.

Step 4: Record the first vaccinations and breeding events

When the animals are in, enter what has already happened, then start recording what happens next:

1. Vaccinations and treatments: record the last vaccination each group received. Your programme must follow your local vet and the official schedule. Throf records the dates and reminds you before the next one is due. It does not prescribe doses.
2. Breeding: record mating or insemination for the ewes and does that have been with the ram. Then set the stage: early pregnancy, late pregnancy or close to birth. Sheep carry for about 147 days and goats for about 150 days, so you can see which ones will give birth soon.
3. Births: when a ewe gives birth, record the birth (single, twins or triplets) and add the newborns with their mother. Their file starts on the day they are born.
4. Health status: move any sick animal to isolation so the whole team knows not to mix it with the herd.

We have separate guides on breeding tracking and vaccination alerts if you want to go deeper. In the first week, just make sure every pregnant female and every recent vaccination is recorded.

Step 5: Add workers and set permissions

Throf is built for a farm team, not just the owner. Each worker gets their own account, so every entry shows who made it. You decide what each person can see and do. There are more than 50 fine-grained permissions. For example:

• The shepherd records feeding, water and weights.
• The person who handles health records vaccinations, treatments and isolation.
• Only the owner or a partner sees expenses, sales and profit.

You can assign tasks to workers and follow their work through the daily work sheet. For roles and a monthly partner report, read running a farm with a team.

Step 6: Read the dashboard every day

Once animals, groups and the first events are in, the dashboard turns into your morning check. Look at three things:

• Herd size and classification: how many mothers, young stock and breeding males, by age and sex.
• Reminders: vaccinations, births and drying-off that are due soon.
• Money: start entering expenses (feed, treatments, labour) and sales from week one. That lets Throf show cost per head and net profit as the months pass.

Larger farms can also use about 20 Excel report types and live dashboards, covering the whole farm, a single group or selected animals. We cover them in a separate article on reports and dashboards.

Your first day and first week checklist

At the end of the week, count the animals in the pen and compare the total with the app. If the numbers match, your farm is ready. From then on, keep it simple: record each event on the day it happens.

Choosing a plan

Herds of up to 25 head can stay on the free plan. Bigger farms choose a yearly plan by herd size, and prices are shown including VAT. Compare the plans on the pricing page.