# [[The History of AnimalTrakker®]] [[Start Here|AnimalTrakker®]] started more than a decade ago with [[AnimalTrakker® FAQs#What Is LambTracker®?|LambTracker®]], the precursor to AnimalTrakker®. LambTracker® began in 2012 when Ken built our first homebrew EID tag reader. While LambTracker® has since been replaced by AnimalTrakker®, the mission we aim to accomplish with the software is the same. In 2020, we officially announced the (then) newest-version of AnimalTrakker® at the CO Wool Growers Convention. This basic program was the first attempt to bring all of our LambTracker® functions into a program that would support multiple species. AnimalTrakker® can handle information on sheep, goats cattle, horses, donkeys, and pigs. We also acquired logos and trademarks for LambTracker® and AnimalTrakker® . In 2021, we completed one of several major database structure revisions as users worked with the existing systems and requested additional data collection options. In 2023, we started work on the [[AnimalTrakker® Farm Desktop Overview#AnimalTrakker® Farm Desktop Registry Package|AnimalTrakker® Registry packages]]. Oogie is the registrar for the American Black Welsh Mountain Sheep Association, American Chocolate Welsh Mountain Sheep Association, and American White Welsh Mountain Sheep Association [[AnimalTrakker® Registry Web Overview#American Black, Chocolate and White Welsh Mountain Sheep Associations|registries]]. These registries had been using Grassroots®, but we were increasingly disappointed in the software. Primarily, we disliked the lack of support for US and Canadian documentation requirements, increasing costs, and our inability to customize the system to accommodate our special needs. We decided it was high time we added a registry function to the AnimalTrakker® suite and began moving our registry from Grassroots slowly. One of our Animaltrakker® team members, Mitch Allen wrote the initial [[AnimalTrakker® Registry Web Overview|Registry Web]] code. We finished the new code and extracted our data from Grassroots in late 2023. Our first AnimalTrakker® web application officially deployed on the December 15th, 2023. In 2024, as we prepared to put AnimalTrakker® on the Google Play Store, we realized that the system needed a complete rewrite. A rewrite would allow us to take advantage of new technologies and position us positively for further enhancements. We hired another team member, Jon Cobb, in March of 2024. Jon has completely rewritten the [[AnimalTrakker® Farm Mobile Overview|AnimalTrakker® Farm Mobile]] application to improve the user experience, all while adding new features that had been requested over the years. In the summer of 2024, we added team member Rebekah Mesman to work closely with our customers, converting their data. She has handled data entry from spreadsheets and even handwritten barn notes to get our customers up and running with the [[AnimalTrakker® System]]. In the fall of 2024, we added team member Rose Mattise to take over website and media operations, plus write the technical documentation. In early 2025, we started serious development on our desktop applications. [[AnimalTrakker® Farm Desktop Overview|Farm Desktop]] and the optional [[AnimalTrakker® Registry Desktop Overview|Registry Desktop]] are both coming along nicely, and we've since released beta deployments of Farm Desktop for Macintosh. A Windows deployment is well underway. We've also undergone another conversion of the underlying database schema to accommodate farmers and ranchers with more stock. For a sneak peak at our future plans, you can always visit our [[AnimalTrakker® Roadmap]].