# Start Here Welcome to AnimalTrakker®’s support system! AnimalTrakker® is a multi-species farm management software suite that can record and track sheep, goats, cattle, horses, donkeys, and pigs. Each program targets a specific user or function. At its core is the [[AnimalTrakker® Database Overview|AnimalTrakker® Database]], an SQLite Database that's used by all of the different software packages. We'd like to start by saying that we've created this support manual to be different. AnimalTrakker® is a program created over time by several different coders, specifically to suit the needs of ranchers and shepherds. We want you to read the manual. We wanted to use it not just to tell what it can do, but also to illustrate real use cases of *how* AnimalTrakker® can benefit you. To that end, parts of the manual will read more like a novel or story than a how-to guide. You can [[The Farming Year Overview|follow these stories]] or go directly to support areas that are of interest to you. ## Will AnimalTrakker® Work For Me? Before you start implementing our system, we recommend taking some time to decide whether it's the right fit for you. While we've created AnimalTrakker® to be versatile and adaptable to many needs, as deployed, it's targeted at three classes of users: 1. Large farms that only want to track a small subset of their animals at any given time. 2. Smaller farms that want to track various metrics on a small amount of animals. 3. Purebred registries with less than 500,000 animals, either existing or new, that want a user-friendly registration and population analysis package. If you can emphatically answer "Yes!" to any of the following questions, AnimalTrakker® will be a great fit for you and your operation. **One:** Do you need to know and record the parents of each animal born on your farm? **Two:** Can you or will you maintain permanent IDs of every animal on your farm? **Three:** Do you want to track performance and management tasks to reduce labor and costs for maintaining your stock? **Four:** For those looking at [[AnimalTrakker® Farm Desktop Overview#AnimalTrakker® Farm Desktop Registry Package|AnimalTrakker® for registries]], is the population size you need to track, including historical animals, less than 500,000? **Five** Are you moving toward collecting more information on your large flock or herd to increase profitability and weed out underperforming animals? **Six** Do you need to track movements on or off grazing allotments? If you've answered no to all of the above, AnimalTrakker® may not be a good fit as-deployed for your operation. ## What Can You Do With AnimalTrakker®? AnimalTrakker® makes all aspects of tracking your stock easy, even through multiple generations. **Farmers and ranchers** can use AnimalTrakker® to track things like: - Individual animals and groups of animals with similar characteristics - Animal management tasks such as shearing, breeding, births, hoof trimming, vaccinations, drug administrations, injuries, and disease treatment - Evaluations, EBVs, and other performance characteristics - Pedigrees of the animals they own - Bloodlines and clusters - Mating tracking - Documenting animals to a registry - Animal profitability **Purebred registries** can use AnimalTrakker® to monitor and record metrics such as: - Pedigrees - Ownership transfers - Locations of animals - Progeny tracking - Population statistics - Bloodlines and clusters - Stored germplasm tracking - Member tracking, including new members, membership renewals, resignations, and on-hold members - Breed documentation, including flock or herd books and member reports **Veterinarians and government entities** can use AnimalTrakker® to track and document things such as: - Vet procedures done to individuals and flocks/herds - Disease traceability - Drugs used - Animal location traceability - Animal ID history - Ownership history - Required diagnostic testing and results - Paper trails for lab work AnimalTrakker® allows you to track virtually any variable tied to your flock or herd, be it individual performance, pedigree data, slaughter withdrawals, birth weights, or otherwise. We're always working to add more trackable metrics to AnimalTrakker®. At the end of the day, our goal for AnimalTrakker® is to make it easy for shepherds and ranchers to track their animals across multiple data points. We first accomplished that goal with [[AnimalTrakker® FAQs#What Is LambTracker®?|LambTracker®]], the original precursor to AnimalTrakker®. Lambtracker® was originally run by just two sheep ranchers, and while we've since expanded our team with several other skilled individuals, we're still a small, private operation. We work to implement new features and database schema as time and money allows. ## Story Path In this support manual, we've included a number of short stories depicting some of our users' day-to-day lives using AnimalTrakker® (with their permission). These stories show specific use cases. They are meant to guide you ideas of what's possible, not provide you an exhaustive list of options. If you'd like to imagine the real-world ways in which AnimalTrakker® can benefit your operation, we recommend giving [[The Farming Year Overview]] a look! We've done our best to blend these stories with true technical support while still keeping navigation easy. If you have any questions or suggestions for us, please don't hesitate to contact our team at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). ## More Information About AnimalTrakker® We've come a long way since starting AnimalTrakker®, and we have a lot to share with you! To learn more about our entire AnimalTrakker® program suite, please visit the [[AnimalTrakker® System]] page. To learn about the history of our company, please see our [[The History of AnimalTrakker®|History of AnimalTrakker®]] page. To see what we're actively working on now and in the near future, check out our [[AnimalTrakker® Roadmap]]. We keep it updated on a quarterly basis. If you want to learn more about what we stand for, see our [[AnimalTrakker® Philosophy]]. ## Our Commitment to Being Open Source Part of the beauty of AnimalTrakker® is that we've built it with [open-source code](https://animaltrakker.com/2024/12/25/our-christmas-present-to-you-the-importance-of-being-open-source/) that can be copied and altered by anyone. If the program won't work for you as deployed, please feel free to tweak it to suit your needs. However, keep in mind as you read that this support guide was crafted with our core AnimalTrakker® system in mind. Customized systems may not be as easy for us to troubleshoot and repair. ## Source Code Repositories The source codes for all applications are on GitLab as separate repositories [in this directory](https://gitlab.com/animaltrakker_system). ## Licenses AnimalTrakker® software versions 0.x.x are currently released under the Apache License Version 2.0. All AnimalTrakker® documentation, including this entire support website, is Copyright 2024-2025 by AnimalTrakker Services, LLC, and is licensed under [Creative Commons 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). AnimalTrakker® and the AnimalTrakker® logo are trademarked by Desert Weyr, LLC, and are used with permission. ## Supporting AnimalTrakker® Development If you'd like to [[AnimalTrakker® Philosophy#Help Us Make AnimalTrakker® Better|support our efforts]] here at AnimalTrakker®, you can do so by purchasing optional hardware, hiring us to handle your registry hosting and maintenance, or making a monetary donation. You can also donate your time by helping our programmers and coders.