Guide
What Goes in a Livestock Project Record Book
Most FFA and 4-H livestock projects require some form of record book -- and most students find out what belongs in one the hard way, a week before it's due. Here's what a complete record actually covers.
Animal identification and background
Species, breed, sex, ear tag or registration number, and where and when the animal was acquired. This is the foundation everything else attaches to, and it's the easiest section to get right if it's recorded on day one instead of reconstructed later.
Financial records
Purchase price, feed costs, supplies, vet care, entry fees -- every dollar spent on the project -- and, at the end, sale price or other income. This section is what turns a record book into an actual accounting of whether the project made or lost money, which is often the whole point of the exercise.
Care and production records
Feeding amounts, weight over time, health events and treatments, and breeding or show results if applicable. This is the section that benefits most from being logged in the moment -- weights and health events are much more accurate recorded the day they happen than reconstructed from memory.
Time and labor records
Hours spent feeding, cleaning, and managing the project, dated and categorized. For FFA students, this overlaps directly with SAE hour requirements -- see our SAE Record Keeping Guide for more on that specific requirement.
Goals and reflection
Many programs ask students to record goals at the start of a project and reflect on what was learned at the end. It's easy to treat this as an afterthought, but it's often what a judge or reviewer reads first -- and it's much easier to write honestly if the goals were actually written down back when the project started.
Keep every part of the record book current, automatically.
Animal details, expenses, weights, health events, and hours -- all logged once in ShowReady OS, exportable when the record book is due.
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