The Tasks page
Calf rearing, on a quiet day, is mostly about not forgetting things. The Tasks page tells you exactly which calves are due for what — today, this week, this month. No more flipping through paper diaries.
Disbud at six weeks. First clostridial at four. Halocur for the first week. Pestivirus at three months. Every routine job in the shed is small. Missing one of them, because it slipped your mind on a Tuesday in early autumn, is what costs you a calf, a vet visit, or a withdrawal-period headache at sale time. The Tasks page is Calfmate's answer to the diary you keep meaning to keep.
Where to find it
Top nav → Tasks. Always there.
What the page shows
At the top, a row of filter chips, each with a count:
- Due now
- Overdue
- Next 7 days
- Calendar week
- Next 30 / 60 / 90 days
- All upcoming
So at a glance: "12 due now, 4 overdue, 18 due this week." No interpretation required.
Below, the work is grouped by protocol — "First clostridial booster", "Disbudding", "Halocur scour prevention". For each one you see the protocol name, trigger age, scope (whole pen or per calf), drug components (a 💉 icon if there are any), and how many calves are due. Inside each protocol, calves are grouped by pen (or by course-dose day for repeating courses like Halocur).
The three buttons you'll use
- Mark ticked done — records just the calves you've ticked.
- Mark pen done — when the whole pen is done, the one-tap shortcut.
- Record doses given — for protocols with drug components. Logs each drug to the calf's treatment history AND triggers the withdrawal period automatically.
- Not needed — for calves who shouldn't have this protocol (e.g. heifer-only vaccine on a bull calf). Stored as "Not needed" on the passport so it's auditable later.
The daily habit (three minutes)
- Open Tasks once a day. Same time each day — morning round or pre-shed check works best.
- Tap Due now first. Do those calves.
- Then Overdue. Feel briefly bad. Get them done.
- Glance at Next 7 days so you know what's coming up.
- Close the app.
That's the whole loop. Three minutes if you've been on top of it, fifteen if you haven't.
How tasks get onto the list
Tasks aren't created manually one-by-one. They're generated automatically from task protocols you (the admin) define once. A protocol says:
- "When a calf is 28 days old, give the first clostridial booster."
- "From day 0 to day 6, give Halocur daily for scours prevention."
- "At pen average age 56 days, disbud the whole pen."
When a calf reaches the trigger age, that calf shows up under the right protocol on the Tasks page. Done once, completed forever. See the task protocols guide for how to define these.
A few quirks worth knowing
- Pen protocols use pen average age, not the youngest or oldest. If a pen has a wide age spread, consider switching that protocol to per-calf scope.
- Marking a multi-drug protocol "done" logs each component to the calf's treatment history individually with its withdrawal period. You don't need to record drugs anywhere else.
- "Not needed" is final — it removes the task. If you change your mind, you'll have to record the action manually from the calf passport.
What the Tasks page isn't
To be honest:
- It's not an ad-hoc to-do list. You can't add "call the vet on Thursday" as a one-off task. Tasks are protocol-driven.
- Triggers are age-only, not event-based (no "7 days after weaning" or "14 days after a positive scour"). That covers about 95% of routine work; the rest stays in your head or your phone.
Who sees it
Both admins and workers see and complete tasks. Only admins can edit the protocols themselves.
One thing to take away
The Tasks page isn't a to-do list. It's a calendar that drives itself off your calves' ages. Set the protocols up once, and your shed basically runs on autopilot from there.
One screen. Every routine job. Right calves, right day.
Calfmate's Tasks page does the remembering. Set protocols up once, then check the list each morning. 30 days free, no card.