Your Farm360 guide

1. Sign in and select your farm

Use the same Farm360 account on the website and iPhone. A Cloudflare, Apple or Supabase dashboard account is separate from your Farm360 sign-in.

1. On the website, click Sign in. Enter your Farm360 email and password.
2. On iPhone, open Cloud and sign in with the same details.
3. Select Farm360 Farm (or the farm you are working on).
4. Tap Refresh farms & sync now. Check the status and the number waiting to upload.

A newly invited person must use the invited email address, confirm their email if required, sign in and accept the farm invitation. If an email link has expired, request a fresh link and use the newest one.

2. Electronic tags and animal records

Every animal requires a tag identifier. Farm360 stores this electronic tag number in the central database alongside the animal record. Blank tags and duplicates within the same farm are rejected. Leading zeroes are preserved. Keep your reader's output format consistent.

The electronic number read from a chip differs from a visually printed management or NLIS number. For reader lookup, register the actual electronic number emitted by the reader. Farm360 does not verify a tag against the NLIS database or submit statutory livestock movements.

The default Herd view shows Alive on farm. Sold and died cattle are retained and accessible using the status filter. Reader lookup searches across all statuses on the selected farm, regardless of the Herd filters.

3. Scan with the Allflex APR250

Farm360 receives APR250 keyboard-style input. This route has been implemented and software-tested; an actual APR250 scan still needs to be tested with your reader.

1. On the reader, select Bluetooth Slave mode and HID or HID smart. Pair it in the iPhone's Bluetooth settings.
2. Use Single Read, Online Mode ON and Short ASCII 15 output. Farm360 expects one 15-digit EID and an Enter terminator.
3. In Herd or Scan, tap Scan electronic tag. Keep the receiving field selected.
4. Press the APR250's physical scan button near one animal's tag.
5. The matching animal opens with its available identity, acquisition, birth, paddock, notes and lifecycle information. An unknown tag opens registration; saving is still required to create an animal.

Keyboard mode is one-way: the phone prepares to receive the ID but cannot remotely trigger the reader or confirm its Bluetooth connection. HID may hide the phone's on-screen keyboard; HID smart changes connection behaviour. See the manufacturer's APR250 manual, especially reader output and Bluetooth setup.

If a scan does not complete automatically, check that the full ID arrived and tap Open scanned animal. Incomplete IDs, unexpected text or multiple IDs in one input are rejected. Use Clear & scan again and scan one tag. A scan reads the animal's tag; it does not change its lifecycle status.

4. Register purchased or farm-born cattle

1. Scan the electronic tag, or open Scan, enter it manually and tap Look up tag.
2. An existing tag opens its record. An unknown tag offers registration.
3. Choose Purchased or Born on farm, then record sex, breed and production purpose.
4. For a purchase, enter the purchase date, supplier and purchase price in AUD; optionally record the birth date. For a birth, record the birth date and optional mother's tag.
5. Add a name, paddock and notes as needed. Tap Save.
6. Sync in Cloud to upload real records to the selected farm.

The acquisition origin stays with the animal throughout its lifecycle. Newly registered cattle start alive. Newborn cattle also require a tag identifier in Farm360; there is no untagged-animal registration flow.

Simulate a new tag creates a local-only demo after you save. Demo animals do not upload and may make the phone's count exceed the website's count. The bulk lifecycle tools exclude local demos and unsynced cattle.

5. Record cattle sold or died

Owners and staff can change lifecycle status online. Viewers can read records.

1. Open Herd. Filter by status, breed, origin, sex, paddock or purpose, and/or search for a tag or name.
2. On the website, tick animals or select all matching alive cattle, then click Mark sold or Mark died. Changing filters clears the web selection.
3. On iPhone, tap Select cattle · Sold / Died. Tick individual animals or select all of the eligible filtered cattle.
4. Choose Sold or Died and enter the effective date. For Sold, enter the total sale proceeds for the whole selection, not the price per animal. Add buyer details or other notes if useful.
5. Review the selected count and average, then save.

Example: a $5,000 sale across five cattle records $1,000 for each. Where a total does not divide exactly into cents, shares differ by at most one cent and their sum matches the original sale total. Farm360 retains the batch total, date, selected animals, notes and recording user.

Sold and died cattle remain in the database and disappear from the default alive view. Choose All statuses, Sold or Died to find them. Exit dates cannot precede arrival or birth. A batch is applied together; invalid selections are rejected without partially changing animals. This version does not offer an undo or return-to-alive workflow for a saved sale or death, so review before saving.

6. Add and remove feedstock

Feedstock is shared centrally and requires an internet connection. On iPhone, the Feedstock tab sits immediately beside Herd.

Add feed

1. Tap Add on iPhone (or the website's add-feed control).
2. Enter the batch name, feed type, storage location, date, quantity and unit.
3. Choose Purchased, Harvested on farm or Opening stock.
4. For purchased feed, enter the total price in AUD and optional supplier. For harvested feed, enter the source field and optional harvest cost.
5. For bales or bags, an average weight can be recorded to estimate mass. Add notes and save.

Types include pasture, lucerne, cereal and mixed hay; silage and haylage; grains; pellets; supplements; and Other. Home-grown hay is recorded as a farm harvest with its source field.

Remove feed

1. Tap Remove.
2. Select the batch and storage location. Check the available quantity.
3. Enter the quantity, date and reason: Feed used, Spoilage / waste, or Stock correction. Spoilage and corrections require a note.
4. Save. The central ledger reduces available stock and retains the batch and movement history.

A removal cannot exceed the stock at that location. Movements cannot be dated before the latest movement for that batch. Other movement controls in batch details support transfers and stock adjustments.

Read current stock

Expand Current stock on iPhone to see totals and batch locations. Pull down to refresh. Quantities in tonnes, kg, bales, bags and litres are tracked separately. Estimated mass only includes known conversions; it excludes litres and bales/bags with no recorded weight. Purchase spend and harvest costs are historical recorded costs, not a remaining-stock valuation.

The six sample batches contain 380 bales, 20 tonnes and 40 bags, with $18,760 purchase cost and $3,300 harvest cost. Any other feedstock you enter will increase the farm-wide totals beyond these sample-only amounts.

7. Farm users and activity

The website's Users workspace is available to the farm owner. It contains the account directory, invitations and User activity. Opening a user shows their activity. The owner can see account names, email addresses and registered mobile app installations. An installation ID is not a phone number or hardware serial number.

To add a person, create an invitation with their name, email and role, then share the invitation link. Automatic invitation email is currently disabled pending the Cloudflare email setup. The recipient sets their own password and accepts the invitation using the invited email. User management remains on the website; the phone supports sign-in and invitation acceptance.

Farm360 records the authenticated uploader of animal registrations, and the user who saves feedstock or lifecycle changes. Historical offline entry cannot establish who originally typed a record before upload.

8. Sync and troubleshooting

My phone and website counts differ.

Check the account, selected farm and filters. Pull down on Herd or tap Refresh farms & sync now in Cloud; refresh the website. Local-only demos count on the phone but do not upload. Sold and died cattle are excluded by the default status filter.

Existing animals are waiting on the phone.

Check Cloud status. Animals created before a farm was selected may need the explicit Assign and upload action in Cloud. Review the target farm before confirming.

A scan opens no record.

Use the actual electronic number and the same output format used at registration. SAMPLE tags cannot match physical chips. Check the selected farm, paired APR250 and receiving field. If online lookup fails but a local match exists, Farm360 opens it with a saved-data warning; no local match plus failed lookup does not create an animal.

Can I work without mobile reception?

Saved animal records remain available locally, and real registrations can queue for sync. Feedstock and lifecycle writes require a connection. A local animal view may be out of date until the next successful sync.

Invalid login credentials or expired confirmation link.

Use your Farm360 email/password, not your Apple or Cloudflare credentials. Confirm the account with the newest confirmation email. Never share passwords with another farm user.

How do I export or print?

Website Export CSV downloads the currently filtered animal list, including electronic tag, status, exit date and sale proceeds. Use your browser's Print command on this manual to print it or save a PDF.

Does updating the website update TestFlight?

No. Website changes need a Cloudflare deployment; iPhone changes need installation from Xcode or a new TestFlight build. This guide may describe features newer than your installed TestFlight version.

9. Reader Settings and NLIS lookup

The iPhone bottom bar contains Herd, Feedstock, Scan, Cloud and Settings. Open Settings to select your reader model and expected 15- or 16-digit output. Your choice is saved on this iPhone and is used by the scan screen. Changing it does not rewrite animal tags.

The catalogue includes Allflex/Agrident, Tru-Test/Datamars, Gallagher, Shearwell, Aleis, AgriEID, UTAGS, FarmXL/YardsTech and PTS reader ranges, including legacy and panel models. It is a configuration catalogue, not a promise of an implemented connection for every model or firmware version.

Keep the output format consistent with the tags already registered. Farm360 preserves leading zeroes and does not infer conversions between reader formats.

Australian repository lookup

NLIS is the official Australian livestock identification database. Open Settings → Look up an electronic tag, or choose Look up tag in NLIS from an animal's details.

1. If you do not yet have access, follow the official NLIS account setup guide, arrange access to your property (PIC), and wait for account approval.
2. Enter or review the actual RFID/NLIS number. Sample placeholders are not physical tag numbers.
3. Tap Copy tag number, then Open official NLIS database.
4. Sign in directly on the official NLIS website and paste the tag into a device/animal enquiry or report available to your account. Use the official report guides if needed.

Automatic lookup is not connected. Farm360 does not currently retrieve or validate NLIS results, store NLIS passwords, or submit cattle movements, sales or deaths. Automatic results inside Farm360 require a separate approved ISC API connection; a Farm360 account alone does not grant NLIS access. See ISC's integration access process.