Finish onboarding in 30 minutes

There's a temptation, when a new app asks you to fill in setup screens, to skip through as fast as you can. Don't. Calfmate's farm setup isn't asking idle questions — it's collecting the numbers that drive feeding volumes, shift times, and pen layouts for everything that follows. Get it right at the start, and the daily round looks after itself. Skip through, and you'll spend the next fortnight fighting wrong defaults.

This is the 30-minute path. Do it once, properly, and you're done.

Where to start

Setup starts automatically the first time you sign in after registering. If you left partway through, open Today and continue, or go to /onboarding.

The four screens

Step 1 — Add your first calf (2 minutes)

Calf ID (ear tag), birth date (defaults to today), and sex. One calf is enough to see how Calfmate works. Got a whole herd? Use Calves → Import after setup — you can add them all at once.

Not at the shed right now? Tap Add later — set up your farm first and come back to your first calf any time.

Step 2 — Welcome: farm name and time (1 minute)

• Farm name — shown in the app and on printed reports.
• Country / region (optional).
• Your local time — Calfmate guesses Australia/Sydney; change it if you need to.

The timezone matters more than people think. Every timestamp Calfmate writes — feeds, treatments, withdrawal end dates — uses this. Get it wrong and your "yesterday at 6am" doses end up on the wrong day.

Step 3 — Set up your pens (5–10 minutes)

Two fields, used together if you want:

• Quick-create numbered pens — type 13 and you get Pen 1 through Pen 13.
• Named pens — type shed names in one line, separated by commas: Hospital, Pine Tree, Shed A.

Default capacity per pen is optional — a soft guide. Pens can be over-filled. You can skip pens and add them later, but calves need a pen before a feeding run.

Step 4 — Milk, feeding & weaning (5 minutes)

One screen, three quick defaults — all pre-filled, so you just adjust what's different.

First, milk. Pick the system you actually run:

• Milk powder (replacer) — you mix powder with water every feed.
• Whole/cow milk — calves drink fresh cow's milk.
• Fortified whole milk — cow's milk with extra powder mixed in.
• Combo — young calves get powder; older calves switch to cow's milk.

Then powder grams per litre if you're using powder, fortifier grams per litre if fortifying, and whether you pasteurise whole milk. Not sure? Pick the closest match — you can change this in Settings later.

Then feeding: 1, 2 or 3 milk feeds per day (AM & PM is the default). This sets the shift chips on Feeding. You can refine actual times in Settings later.

Then weaning: the age you usually take calves off milk. Typical: 56 days (8 weeks) for dairy heifers. That is the only weaning number this screen asks for. Step-down litres, if you use them, live in Settings after setup.

Tap Finish setup. Farm setup is done.

The 10 minutes after setup that pay you back

These screens handle the broad strokes. Three more are worth your time before you start using the app daily:

1. Settings → Milk volumes by age — set your litres-per-feed bands. Defaults are starter values; tune to your shed.
2. Treatments → Drug library — add your top 8–12 drugs with the correct withdrawal periods. (See the drug library guide.)
3. Tasks → Protocols — add your top 3–5 vaccine / disbud protocols. (See the task protocols guide.)

Now you're configured. The shed routines work properly from this point.

Revisit every 6 months

Onboarding values aren't carved in stone. Come back to Settings when:

• Calf prices or milk economics change (re-tune weaning).
• You switch milk replacer brands (powder rate, temperatures).
• You renovate the shed (pen layout changes).
• You take on workers and need shared device + worker PINs (see the shared device guide).

One thing to take away

Half an hour upfront beats six months of fighting bad defaults. Do farm setup properly the first time, even if it feels like busywork. The next thousand days of feeding depend on it.