Record a calving

What this form helps you do

Record Calving completes the dam’s birth event and its linked consequences in one operation. It can register live calves, retain stillbirth counts, start the dam’s next lactation, reset her pregnancy state to Open, and clear obsolete calving work.

Use this form instead of recording the birth and then registering the same live calves separately. A successful save already creates their animal records.

Before you start

The dam must:

• exist on the selected farm;
• be recorded as female;
• still be an active animal; and
• be enrolled in the Breeding Program.

You also need permission to manage animals. You can open the form from the dam’s record, the lifecycle pages, calendar or due work. Always confirm the dam shown at the top before entering the birth.

Have the calving date, each calf’s outcome and identifiers, and any assistance or afterbirth observations ready. If calf details are genuinely unavailable, Farmlync permits the calving event to be saved without a calf row.

1. Record the birth details

Control	Required	Valid value and effect
Calving Date	Yes	Defaults to the selected farm’s current date. It is interpreted in the farm’s timezone. The farm-portal form accepts up to 7 days in the future, but recording the event immediately creates its calves, opens the lactation and changes the dam’s current breeding and lifecycle state. Enter the actual birth date; do not use this form to schedule a future calving.
Eligible breeding service	When several are offered, verify the selection	Farmlync selects the most recent eligible service by default. Choose another only when that service produced the calving. The selected service supplies sire context for the calves.

When there is one eligible service, the form displays its sire, breed, service type, service date and outcome. When there are several, the selector includes those details for each choice. If there is no eligible service, enter a sire ID in each calf’s additional details when known.

An Unusual gestation interval warning appears when the selected service and calving dates are fewer than 260 or more than 295 days apart. The screen uses about 283 days as a reference. Recheck the dates and selected service; the warning does not prevent a valid save and is not a veterinary diagnosis.

If the explicitly selected service was already marked Failed or Early loss, Farmlync preserves that historical outcome and reports a warning after saving instead of silently changing it.

2. Add every calf

Select Add Calf for the first calf and Add Another for each additional calf. A calving supports a maximum of four calves. Use the bin beside a draft row to remove a calf added by mistake.

When two or more rows are present, the form marks the event as a multiple birth.

Main calf fields

Field	Required	Valid value and effect
Tag Number	Required for a live calf	Up to 50 characters and unique within this birth and across the farm. A stillborn calf does not require a tag because no Animal record is created.
Sex	Yes	Female or Male. A new row defaults to Female; verify every calf.
Birth Weight (kg)	No	A number from 15 to 65 kg, with decimal values allowed.
Breed	No	Choose from the farm’s breed library. It defaults from the selected sire’s breed when available; changing it displays that the sire-derived value was overridden.
National ID	Depends on farm settings	Shown when government integration or registry identity is configured. A live calf must have one when the farm requires it. Farmlync normalizes the value before saving. A stillborn calf is exempt.

Tag comparison ignores letter case and surrounding spaces when checking duplicates within the form. The server also prevents a tag that already belongs to another animal on the farm.

Additional calf details

Select Show additional calf details on a calf row.

Field	Required	Valid value and effect
Name	No	Calf name, up to 100 characters accepted by the server.
Colour	No	Choose an available animal colour.
Serial Number	No	Official or registry serial, up to 100 characters.
Sire ID	No	Shown when no eligible breeding service supplied the sire. Enter the sire animal ID when known.
Calf outcome	Yes	Alive registers an animal. Stillborn counts the birth but creates no animal record.
Keep for breeding	For a live calf, verify the default	Defaults on. Turn it off when the calf is not intended for breeding. The control is hidden for a stillborn calf.

Do not mark a stillborn calf as alive merely to supply an identifier. Conversely, do not mark a live calf as stillborn to avoid a required tag or National ID.

3. Add clinical details

Expand Clinical details when observations are available.

Field	Required	Valid value and effect
Difficulty Score	No	Not scored, 1 — Unassisted, 2 — Easy Pull, 3 — Hard Pull, 4 — Mechanical Assist, or 5 — Cesarean.
Assistance Required	No	None, Farmer, Vet, Mechanical Aid, or Other. It defaults to None.
Done By	No	Person who assisted, up to 100 characters. It defaults to the signed-in user’s name.
Afterbirth status	No	Not checked, Delivered, or Not delivered. Not delivered creates a retained-placenta follow-up when that follow-up is enabled.
Notes	No	Free text up to 1,000 characters. The microphone button can append dictated text when voice input is supported.

A difficulty score of 4 or 5, or Vet assistance, makes the result screen offer a prefilled general health check for the dam. The separate Difficult calving alert is rule-driven and is currently raised only for a score of 4 or 5; selecting Vet alone does not create that alert.

4. Review and save

When calves have been added, Before saving summarizes:

• dam tag;
• calving date;
• calf count and sex;
• difficulty score.

Check the summary and each calf row, then select Record Calving. While the request is saving, the form is locked and cannot be closed accidentally. If a network retry is needed, Farmlync reuses the same operation identity so the same calving is not created twice.

If validation fails, the form focuses the first invalid field. Correct the displayed value and submit the same draft again. Do not open a second form for the same event.

5. Read the successful result

The result screen shows:

• the number of live and stillborn calves recorded;
• the lactation number started for the dam;
• a warning if the chosen breeding service had a failed or loss outcome;
• View dam and View calf links;
• Birth registration status when a government integration is enabled; and
• Record recommended health check after a difficult calving.

Select Done only after reviewing these results.

What Farmlync changes together

A successful save:

1. records the calving event;
2. creates one Animal record for each live calf;
3. links the calves to the dam and resolved sire information;
4. applies animal-capacity admission for the new live calves;
5. starts the dam’s next lactation using her authoritative lactation history;
6. changes her pregnancy state to Open;
7. updates the selected breeding service when appropriate;
8. creates required registry-delivery work when configured; and
9. refreshes animal, lifecycle, breeding, milk and work views after commit.

These effects commit as one operation. If a required part fails, Farmlync does not leave a partly recorded calving.

Common problems

Message or symptom	What to check
Calving requires a female animal	Confirm that the correct dam was selected and that her sex is correct on the animal record.
Animal is not in the Breeding Program	Enrol the dam before recording the calving.
Duplicate calf tag	Check other calf rows and the existing herd for that tag.
National ID required	Enter the registry identifier for every live calf on a farm where it is mandatory.
Unusual gestation interval	Recheck both dates and the selected breeding service.
Recorded with a warning	Review the breeding service history; Farmlync kept an existing Failed or Early loss result for reconciliation.

Related guides

• Lifecycle overview
• Breeding worklist
• Animal detail and identity
• Registry work
• Health checks