Do I have to reformat my spreadsheet before importing it?

No. A good import reads your own column headings, in English or Afrikaans, and shows you what it understood so you can correct it. You should not have to rearrange columns or retype anything.

What happens to animals I have already sold or that have died?

Keep them in the file with the date they were sold or died. They stay on your records as history but are left out of your live stock count, so your numbers stay right.

Can I import a dip book or a stock-count sheet instead of an animal list?

Yes. A sheet with one row per job — a date, a camp and a number — should import into the matching register (dipping, vaccinations, stock counts, deaths) rather than being turned into a list of animals.

What if the same tag number appears twice in my sheet?

It depends why. If it is the same animal on two lines — one row per dip, for example — the history should be combined onto one animal. If they are genuinely two different animals sharing a number, the import should tell you rather than merge them, because merging would put one animal's history on another.

Will importing twice duplicate my herd?

It should not. Animals already on file should be skipped rather than added again, so a second import of the same file changes nothing.

My spreadsheet has a tab for each camp. Is that a problem?

No, that is a common way to keep it. Every tab should be read, and the tab name can be used as the camp for the animals on it.

Moving your herd records off Excel (without retyping them)

6 min read · Updated 22 July 2026

Why farmers get stuck on the spreadsheet

A herd spreadsheet is rarely tidy. The headings are whatever the person who started it typed. There is often a farm name and a blank line above the actual column headings. Dates are written three different ways in the same column. Sold and dead animals are still in the list because nobody wanted to delete history.

Most farm software asks you to fix all of that first: download our template, rearrange your columns to match it, then upload. That is a big job, and it is the reason a lot of farmers never make the move at all.

What a good import should handle for you

You should be able to send the file as it is. When you are comparing farm software, these are the things worth asking about — they are the difference between an afternoon and a week.

Your own column headings, in either language — Oormerk, Geslag, Geboortedatum, Kamp — not a fixed template you have to match.
Headings that are not on the first row, because there is a farm name and a blank line above them.
Several files at once, and workbooks with more than one tab — a tab per camp, per year or per species.
Dates written the South African way (15/03/2021), and the ability to say when a date is genuinely unclear rather than quietly guessing.
Your words for sex — koei, vers, ooi, bul, ram, os, hamel, kapater — including the ones that mean the animal is castrated.
Animals that have already been sold or died, kept for your records but left out of your stock count.
A preview of what it understood, which you can correct, BEFORE anything is saved.

The one question that matters most

Ask what happens to your stock counts. If you have three hundred animals in a sheet and the software also adds an opening count, you can end up counted twice. Good software asks you which it should do instead of deciding for you.

It is not only animal lists

Many farmers keep a dip book or a stock-count sheet rather than a list of animals — one row per job done, with a date, a camp and a number. Those are records too, and they should import into the matching register rather than being turned into animals.

What your sheet looks like	What it should become
One row per animal, with a tag number	Your animal list, with their history attached
Date, camp, number, dip used	Your dipping register
Date, camp, number counted	Your stock counts
Date, camp, how many died	Your mortality register

What to check before you send it

Make sure every animal has something in the tag or number column — an animal with no number cannot be told apart from any other.
Check that the same number is not used for two different animals. Numbers do get reused across years, and per-camp numbering means the same number can appear twice.
Leave sold and dead animals in the file, and fill in the date they were sold or died. Do not delete them — that is your history.
If the file covers more than one kind of animal, put each on its own tab and name the tab (Beeste, Skape).
Do not bother tidying the headings or reformatting the dates. That is the software's job.

About the different numbers an animal carries

Cattle often have more than one identifier — the number you work with day to day, an electronic or RFID tag, an official ear tag from an FMD vaccination, and a brand or tattoo. They are not interchangeable, so keep them in separate columns rather than picking one.

How it works in FarmBind

Send your file — Excel or CSV, any layout, as many files as you like.
We read the column headings and show you what we understood, with every column as a dropdown you can change.
You check the preview: a few real rows, read the way we read them.
Press import. Animals already on file are skipped, never duplicated — so if you are not sure, you can safely try it twice.

If you would rather start from a blank sheet, there is a template with the columns already named and a page explaining each one. But it is there for people starting from scratch, not a hoop to jump through if you already have your records.

Bring your herd across

Start free, send your spreadsheet as it is, and see your herd in one place. Nothing is saved until you have checked it.

Start free

Common questions

Do I have to reformat my spreadsheet before importing it?: No. A good import reads your own column headings, in English or Afrikaans, and shows you what it understood so you can correct it. You should not have to rearrange columns or retype anything.
What happens to animals I have already sold or that have died?: Keep them in the file with the date they were sold or died. They stay on your records as history but are left out of your live stock count, so your numbers stay right.
Can I import a dip book or a stock-count sheet instead of an animal list?: Yes. A sheet with one row per job — a date, a camp and a number — should import into the matching register (dipping, vaccinations, stock counts, deaths) rather than being turned into a list of animals.
What if the same tag number appears twice in my sheet?: It depends why. If it is the same animal on two lines — one row per dip, for example — the history should be combined onto one animal. If they are genuinely two different animals sharing a number, the import should tell you rather than merge them, because merging would put one animal's history on another.
Will importing twice duplicate my herd?: It should not. Animals already on file should be skipped rather than added again, so a second import of the same file changes nothing.
My spreadsheet has a tab for each camp. Is that a problem?: No, that is a common way to keep it. Every tab should be read, and the tab name can be used as the camp for the animals on it.