How to ensure your livestock numbers are accurate

Why are accurate livestock numbers important?

Particularly when creating and updating a plan, and especially at the end of financial year, accurate stock numbers are vital to: 

• Budget and manage cashflow with confidence.

• Accurately report on performance as cashflow doesn’t tell the full story, especially if there are changes in stock numbers over the year.

• Give your bank a clear picture of your financial position.

• Support your accountant with accurate year-end tax information.

• Builds trust by showing clear, timely information.

• Forecast stocking rates and predict feed demand.

In short, keeping your livestock grid accurate gives you confidence, control, and credibility.

Livestock Insights – AI-powered assistance to get your livestock numbers right (Beta)

Farm Focus now uses AI to help you get your livestock reconciliation accurate. Livestock Insights reviews your livestock numbers and gives you helpful pointers and suggestions to identify things that may need attention.

To get started:

1. Open your Working Plan (actuals and budget) or a Draft.

2. Go to the Livestock tab.

3. Click Farm Assistant in the top-right corner.

4. The Farm Assistant will open on the Livestock Insights tab and highlight areas that may need attention.

For example, Livestock Insights might pick up that you:

• Haven’t entered any births for lambs or calves.

• Haven’t recorded any deaths.

• Have entered an unusual or unrealistic quantity.

• May have used the wrong livestock event.

Game changer! Instead of manually checking every part of your reconciliation, Livestock Insights helps point you towards the areas that need a closer look.

Click on an insight to go straight to the relevant place in the livestock grid and make any necessary corrections. Once you have checked an insight, you can dismiss it by clicking the X if it isn’t relevant or useful.

Tip: Livestock Insights is designed to help you identify things that may need attention, but you should always use your own knowledge and judgement to confirm that your livestock numbers are correct.

If you prefer to check your livestock reconciliation manually, or want to work through a more detailed year-end check, follow the steps below.

Step 1. Confirm your opening numbers

This is done from the relevant year's plan in the livestock grid. All movements in the livestock grid flow from your opening numbers. These automatically carry over from the previous financial years closing numbers, or can be manually edited.

Ideally last financial year's stock numbers are correct, so the next years opening are ready to go, but if they are not you have two options:

• Correct last year: Go into the previous year and ensure all events are entered. Often it is the non-financial events (births and deaths etc) that need to be manually entered. To check the previous year:

  • Check the opening numbers are correct (the previous year's financial statements are a good place to go to se that year's closing numbers if you aren't sure what the next year's opening numbers should be).

  • Ensure that the correct stock class and quantity has been entered for all sales and purchases (the Cashflow Detail report, filtered for stock sales and purchases, with the Quantity (Qty) and Price per quantity ($/Qty) columns can be a great place to surface the detail to check if the information is accurate, and if any updates are needed go to Actuals > Completed, locate the event, then click on it to open the event and update as required. Note, even when a coded line is locked in a final GST return the stock extended code and quantity can be changed).

  • Use the non-financial events (births, deaths etc) as a tool to get the year end tallies correct.

• Start fresh: If last year’s records are inaccurate and you do not to want to correct them, then draw a line in the sand and manually enter the opening numbers in the next year. This is done simply by clicking in the 'Opening' column in the livestock grid and entering the quantities (again the previous year's closing numbers from your financial statements are the numbers you should enter as the next year's opening numbers).

Remember:

• • Stock age up at year-end, even Autumn born calves.

  • Closing numbers equal next year's opening numbers.

  • No lambs or calves should be in opening numbers (they are born within a year, then age up to close the year as hoggets or 1 year olds).

  • There should not be negative quantities as opening numbers.

Step 2. Follow best practice during the year

• When coding sales and purchases enter the correct quantity, average weight (not compulsory for dairy farmers) per head or total kgs, and specify if its a carcass weight or live weight.

• Manually enter non-financial events (e.g., births, deaths, missing, found).

• Use the 'transfer' event to move quantities of stock from one stock class to another (for example bull calves to steer calves, or lambs to replacement lambs).

Tip: Get an accurate stock tally stock every time they are in the yards or at shearing time and update the stock numbers in Farm Focus to keep the reconciliation tidy throughout the year and save yourself time at year-end.

Step 3. Reconcile at year-end

At the end of the financial year, check that you have:

1. Correct opening numbers.

2. Entered all births, deaths, found etc.

3. Recorded all sale and purchase details accurately. 

4. Carried out a physical stock count (yard or paddock).

Tips for success

• Take a stock count at appropriate times and ensure stock on hand numbers in Farm Focus align.

• Have a good system for recording tallies and sharing them (e.g. physical farm management software, a notebook, your smartphone or a farm message group).

• Remember you can easily change the stock class extended code, quantity and weights if they were not entered correctly initially.

• Non-financial events (births, deaths, found etc) are often a tool to balance your numbers.

• Keep your codes for stock classes as simple as possible, and align the names with what you call them in your notebook or any other software.   

• Aging occurs on balance date.

• Code an animal to the stock class that they were at the beginning of the year.

More information

• Learn about the Livestock grid in Farm Focus

• How to edit opening livestock numbers

• How to record actual and planned births and deaths 

• How to manage livestock ageing in Farm Focus

• How to manage livestock codes in Farm Focus