Cattleitics - Cattle Herd Management for Small Farmers
A friend of mine has a small cattle farm outside Makhanda in the Eastern Cape. He manages his herd with a spreadsheet. Tag numbers, calving dates, paddock assignments, vaccination schedules — all in a single Excel file that's one accidental sort away from chaos. I knew there had to be a better way.
Cattleitics is a free, open-source web app for hobby farmers who want something more intuitive and visual than a spreadsheet, but don't need (or want to pay for) enterprise-grade farm management software.
The Vibe Coding Continues
Like the Traffic Simulator, this was almost entirely vibe-coded. I started with Antigravity 2 to get the core structure and functionality in place, then tweaked and refined it with Kiro. Once again, I'm genuinely surprised that you can describe an app in plain language and get something fully functional back. A complete herd management system with authentication, cloud storage, map integration, CSV import/export — all from prompting.
The tech stack is deliberately simple: vanilla JavaScript, no framework, hosted on Vercel with Supabase for the database. Kiro actually recommended this combination because everything has a generous free tier. No monthly costs, no vendor lock-in.
The Map
This ties into my love of maps. When you sign up, you set the base coordinates for your farm. From there you can define paddocks by drawing their outlines directly on the map — click to place boundary points, close the shape, and you've got a paddock. Each one shows the head count and scrollable cow portraits. Click a cow's thumbnail on the map and you jump straight to its profile.
It's the feature that makes this feel like more than a database with a UI. You can actually see where your cattle are, spatially, on a real satellite view of your farm.
Key Features
- Cloud-synced herd records — Each farmer gets their own private account. Access from any device.
- Visual farm map — Draw paddock boundaries on a real map. See head counts and cow portraits per paddock.
- CSV import & export — Download your herd as a spreadsheet anytime. Import from CSV to migrate existing data. Edit offline in Excel and re-import.
- Cattle profiler & pedigree — Track biological profiles, pregnancy dates, purchase/sale finances. View maternal, paternal, and offspring pedigree charts.
- Vaccination & vet scheduler — Plan seasonal procedures with priority indicators. Completing a task auto-logs a medical entry in the cow's history.
- Photo uploads — Capture or upload cow photos from your phone. Images are compressed on-the-fly.
The Offline Question
Originally I built this to work entirely offline — a local Node.js server saving JSON and CSV files to disk. That mode still exists (there's a batch file that fires it up), but the primary experience is now cloud-first. The practical compromise is that you can always export your data to CSV, edit it in Excel without any internet connection, and then import it back when you're online again. Your data is always yours.
Who It's For
Hobby farmers. The guy with 30 head on a smallholding who's outgrown his spreadsheet but doesn't need a R500/month subscription to some enterprise platform. Someone who wants to know which cow is in which paddock, when the next calving is due, and whether the herd's vaccinations are up to date — without fighting a complicated interface.
Current Status
This is very much a beta v1. The core is all there and it works, but I'd love feedback and feature ideas. If you farm cattle — even just a few — give it a try and tell me what's missing or what doesn't make sense.
Try It Out
- Live App: cattleitics.vercel.app
- Source Code: GitHub