Equine Farm Manager: Complete User Guide

01About the app

The Equine Farm Manager brings the Forage Ledger, the body-condition worksheet, and the Recovery Ledger together with pasture, manure, biosecurity, and breeding records in one place. Enter a horse or a field once, and every tab shares it.

Who it is for: anyone responsible for one horse or a whole barn, from a backyard owner to a breeding or boarding operation.

The principle behind it: forage comes first. Size the hay, test it, match it to each horse, and fill only the real gaps. Grain and supplements are for horses that need what forage cannot supply. The horse's condition and weight trend are the final check on any plan.

02Getting around

• Tabs group the work: Farm, Fields, Forage, BCS, Recovery, Manure, Biosecurity, Breeding, Reports, and Settings.
• Cards within each tab read top to bottom. Results update as you type.
• Autosave: every entry saves in this browser on this device as you go. There is no Save button for routine entries.
• Edit and Cancel edit: clicking a saved record loads it into the form above. Change it and save, or press Cancel edit to leave it untouched.
• Offline: once loaded, the app works without a connection. Add it to your phone's home screen to use it in the barn.
• Small screens: wide tables scroll sideways. Turn a phone to landscape for the forage tables.

03Farm and horses

Farm tab · Farm · Horses

Farm

Farm name, steward or owner, county, year established, and notes. The farm name heads every printed report.

Horses

Use + Add a horse for each animal. The fields you set here travel to every other tab:

Each horse's latest body-condition score and weight appear on the Horses card automatically once you record them on the BCS tab.

04Fields, map, and grazing

Rotation map · Fields & paddocks · Grazing log

• Fields & paddocks: add each field with + Add a field. A field can carry its own soil test, which the compost planner uses.
• Rotation map: import field borders as KML or GeoJSON from Mapulator or another GPS mapper. Shapes match fields by name; an unmatched shape creates a new field with acreage measured from its geometry. Each paddock shows as grazing, ready, or resting.
• Grazing log: choose a field, date in, date out, and the horses on it, then Log grazing move. The log ties horses to paddocks and drives the map status.

Pasture share by month, pasture sugar risk, and the pasture intake calculator are on the Forage tab. See Pasture, Grazing & Sugar Risk for the full method.

05Forage and hay

Forage tab

The forage plan is the core of the app. In order down the tab:

1. Annual forage plan summary: hay to feed for the full year, peak all-hay day, heaviest month, value of hay on hand, and cost per horse per year.
2. The herd: class, grazing system, weight, head count, BCS, and cutting fed for each horse.
3. Feeding method: sets the waste allowance, from about 6% with a slow-feed net to about 30% for a round bale with no feeder.
4. Hay library: one entry per cutting or lot, with bale weight, bales on hand, analysis, and cost (per bale, per ton, or farm-grown cost of production).
5. Cost of feed compared: dollars per megacalorie for each cutting.
6. What testing your hay changed: the plan on measured values against the visual estimate.
7. Grazing systems and Pasture testing & sugar risk.
8. Pasture intake calculator.
9. Hay demand across the year and Have vs. need by cutting.
10. Feeding window: what to still buy from barn-up to turnout.
11. Daily feed chart and Feeding log, which draws down inventory.
12. Does the hay meet the herd? energy and protein check, and optional manual Rations.

See the Forage & Hay Planning User Guide for every input and calculation.

06Body condition, weight, and notes

BCS tab · Body condition worksheet · Body weight · Management notes · History

• Body condition worksheet: six-region Henneke scoring with as many assessors as you like. Pick a horse type to set the target range and a disagreement threshold (1.5, 2.0, or 2.5 points) to flag regions to re-check together.
• Save and Cancel live in the horse banner at the top of the tab, which stays in view as you scroll. Saving carries the score to the horse and into the forage plan.
• Body weight: log scale weight, or enter heart girth and body length to estimate it.
• Management notes: dated notes tagged by lever (feed, turnout, health, exercise, other) drop markers on the horse's condition and weight trend.

See Body Condition & Weight for scoring technique and targets.

07Recovery Ledger

Recovery tab

Records how a horse recovers after work: work type and discipline, duration, air temperature and humidity (heat index), resting and peak heart rate, heart rate at each minute after work, respiratory rate, optional lactate, and a whole-horse check (hydration, gut sounds, attitude and gait, and welfare flags). The app interpolates time to the recovery target, 64 bpm by default, and tracks each horse's history.

See the Recovery Ledger Guide for the full protocol.

08Manure and compost

Manure tab · Waste volume by housing · Compost & handling · Compost application planner · Where to send compost

• Waste volume by housing: estimated annual manure plus bedding in cubic yards, driven by each horse's housing type.
• Compost & handling: dated records of volume and status (collecting, composting, cured, applied), with optional field and rate. Import a compost or manure analysis as XML or PDF.
• Compost application planner: pick an analyzed pile and a soil-tested field. The rate is sized to the most limiting nutrient, phosphorus first.
• Where to send compost: fields ranked by the P₂O₅ and K₂O they need per acre. High-P, high-K fields are marked "hold."

See Manure & Compost Planning.

09Biosecurity and parasites

Biosecurity tab · Biosecurity & health records · Parasite management · Coming due · All records

Record vaccinations, tests, quarantines, visitors, transport, and incidents, with an optional horse, result, and next-due date. Enter fecal egg counts as eggs per gram in Result, and the parasite summary classifies each horse as a low, moderate, or high shedder. Coming due lists everything due in the next 60 days.

See Biosecurity & Parasite Records.

10Breeding and foaling

Breeding tab

Record each cover or insemination: mare, stallion (yours or an outside stallion), method, date, and status. The estimated foaling date fills in at 340 days. When the foal arrives, record its date, sex, and name, and use Add foal to herd. Summaries show the season, broodmares, and each stallion's service record.

See Breeding & Foaling Records.

11Reports

Reports tab · Print a report

Choose a scope (the comprehensive farm report, the daily feed chart barn sheet, or an individual horse or field), then Preview to see the exact printout below the page and Download / print to save it as a PDF or print it.

12Settings, backup, and your data

• Dropdown lists and calculation constants can be edited in Settings. Removing an option does not change records already using it.
• Save to file downloads your whole farm, settings included, as a portable backup. Open a saved file restores it on any device.
• Run integrity check looks for broken links between records.
• Reset to JoGlenn sample loads the example farm. Clear everything erases this browser's copy.

13Assumptions and limitations

• Intake and energy estimates follow NRC (2007)-style values scaled to body weight. They are suitable for planning and buying, not for a formulated ration.
• The energy check assumes hay is the only forage at target intake, the tightest winter case.
• Untested cuttings assume 90% dry matter and a visual-quality energy estimate until an analysis is entered.
• Pasture intake varies widely with forage, weather, the individual horse, and grazing behavior. Pasture figures are starting points.
• Recovery results describe a session, not the horse's health.
• Compost rates are planning figures. Follow your nutrient management plan, local setbacks, and any AEM or CAFO requirements that apply to your farm.

14Glossary

15Troubleshooting