Growing a 150 to 500 Head Sheep and Goat Farm with Throf

This guide is for a breeder with 150 to 500 sheep or goats, one or two workers, and regular sales of lambs, kids and Eid batches. It shows how to run Throf as you grow inside this band: an account and tasks for each worker, stage changes for whole groups, weights and feed conversion, profit per group, and the right plan at each step.

At 150 head you still knew most animals by sight. At 400 head you no longer can: there are more pens, a planned breeding season, fattening batches, and a worker recording while you are away. The question changes from "how many do I have?" to "which group makes money, how much does it eat, and who recorded that treatment?". This is the band where a flock turns into a small commercial business.

The 150 to 500 head farm at a glance

In this band, the plan depends on two things: how many head you keep and how many workers record. The Silver plan has all operational features and one employee account. The Gold plan adds a second employee, permissions and employee activity, advanced reports, detailed Throf indicators and the feed-conversion dashboard. Once you pass 420 head you move to the Company plan. Details are on the plans page.

What you need to track

• Live count per pen and stage: how many in each group, how many pregnant, lactating, fattening, and how many breeding males.
• Breeding seasons and births: who was mated and when, who is due soon (sheep gestation is about 147 days, goats about 150), twins and miscarriages.
• Weight against feed: how many kg the fattening pen eats, how much weight it gains, and the average daily gain.
• Workers' activity: what was recorded today, by whom, and which tasks are still open.
• Health and deaths: vaccinations following your local vet's schedule, treatments, isolation and deaths per pen.
• Money per group: expenses, sales, net profit and cost per head, not only for the whole farm but for each group.

Step-by-step roadmap

Phase 1: 150 to 250 head

1. Load the whole flock at once: prepare an Excel file with each animal's number and tag colour (the pair is the animal's identity), breed, sex, birth date, pen, and mother and father if known. Import it into Throf instead of typing animals one by one.
2. Make groups match the pens: name each group after its real pen (Ewes, Rams, Weaned, Fattening, Isolation). Throf also classifies animals automatically by age and sex: unweaned, young stock, adults, mothers and breeding males.
3. Give your first worker an account: on the Silver plan you have the main account plus one employee account. The worker records meals, births and treatments from their phone, and every action carries their name.
4. Assign daily tasks: create tasks such as "feed the fattening pen" or "check pregnant ewes" and assign them to the worker, who sees them on the phone while you see what got done.
5. Record feed stock and meals: enter the current stock in kg, then record meals per group, so the stock goes down and you know when to reorder.

Phase 2: 250 to 400 head

1. Move to the Gold plan: when you pass 210 head or need a second worker. You now have two employee accounts, permissions that set what each worker can see and edit, and each employee's activity in front of you.
2. Set permissions by role: workers record feeding, health and births, without deleting or seeing finance if you prefer. More detail in farm team permissions.
3. Change the stage of a whole group: at weaning, at the start of fattening or at drying-off, do not edit animals one by one; use "change stage" for the whole group in one go.
4. Start regular weighing: weigh the fattening pen every two weeks and record the weights. The feed-conversion dashboard on the Gold plan shows average daily weight gain and the animals whose weight changed most, so you know which batch earns its feed. See feed conversion ratio in fattening.
5. Record money on the animal and the group: start each animal's cost from its purchase price or production cost, then expenses (feed, medicine, wages) add up. Record every sale on the animal itself.

Phase 3: 400 to 500 head

1. Read the daily operations log every evening: every action with its time and the name of the person who recorded it, so you know what happened without a phone call.
2. Export advanced reports per group: about 20 Excel report types, for the whole farm, a group or selected animals: classification, pregnancy, newborns, fattening, weight, finance and sales. A finance report for one group shows that group's profit on its own.
3. Prepare the move to the Company plan: once you pass 420 head or need a third worker, move to the Company plan, up to 840 head with the main account and 3 employees.

Fixed routine

Before any sale, check the drug withdrawal period report, and when you sell an animal you can share the buyer version of its PDF with the buyer.

Common mistakes in this band

• The worker records on the owner's phone: you cannot tell who did what. Fix: a personal account for each worker, with permissions by role once you are on Gold.
• Fattening without weighing: you spend feed without knowing whether it turns into meat. Fix: weigh every two weeks, review the feed-conversion dashboard, and sell or rethink the batch whose weight has stalled.
• All the farm's profit in one number: you do not know whether the ewes or the fattening batch make the money. Fix: record expenses and sales on the animals and export the finance report per group.
• Updating stages animal by animal: it falls behind, then stops. Fix: change the whole group's stage at each weaning or fattening start.
• Staying on a plan smaller than the flock: the count passes the limit, or a new worker arrives with no account. Fix: watch the live count and upgrade a few days before you need it.

When to move to the next stage

If your flock passes 500 head, if you now have a supervisor and three or more workers, or if you need regular laptop reports across all pens, you have entered a new band. Read 500 to 2000 head with Throf, and if you are heading towards 1000 head, the 1000-head farm guide fits you.

If your flock is still under 150 head and you mostly work alone, the 50 to 150 head guide is closer to your situation. To compare every profile, start from which Throf setup fits your farm.