Getting started
Five minutes, start to finish. Sign up, confirm your email, set up a flock, log your first animal. After that, the rest of the app makes a lot more sense.
1. Make an account
Go to the sign-up page. Two ways in:
- Email + password. Type your email, pick a password that isn't "password123," and submit.
- Google. Click the Google button. Pick the Google account you want to use. Done.
Either way you'll get to the same place. Pick whichever you'd rather remember in a month.
2. Confirm your email
If you signed up with email + password, we send a confirmation email. Click the link in it. The link tells our server "yes, this is a real email I can actually receive" — without that, we can't email you reset links or notifications.
Didn't see it? Check spam. If it's not there either, hit the Contact page and we'll resend it.
3. Your first flock
After sign-in, EarTag creates a flock for you called "My Flock." You can rename it later — that's all "flock" means in the app: a container for the animals you keep records on. One household, one flock is the usual setup.
Got two homesteads in two states? Two flocks. Run cattle and goats on the same property? Still one flock — species lives on the animal, not the flock.
4. Add your first animal
From the dashboard, hit Animals in the top nav, then Add animal. Fill in what you know:
- Species (goat, sheep, cattle, etc.)
- Tag number, name, or both — whatever you actually call this animal
- Sex, birth date, breed if you know it
- A photo (skip if you're at a desk; add later from the barn)
Don't sweat the optional fields. You can edit anything later — and you can add fifty more animals before you ever fill all of this in for one of them.
5. Log something on it
Open the animal you just added. Hit the + button (or "Log event"). Pick a type — weight is the easiest first one. Type the number. Save.
That's the loop. Every record an animal generates over its lifetime is some version of this: open the animal, hit log, pick a type, fill it in, save. Vaccinations, kiddings, sales, sicknesses — same loop.
What now?
You're done with the bootstrap. From here:
- More on the animals tab — list, search, filter, photos.
- More on logging events — what each event type is for.
- Invite a family member or your vet.