The vocabulary, plain.
Plain-English definitions of the terms that come up in livestock software. If a software studio uses one of these without explaining it, you have every right to ask what they mean.
- 01
Animal record (individual animal ID)
A single record tied to one animal by its ID, holding everything that has happened to it rather than scattering it across separate systems.
The alternative is what most operations run on today: a buyer's notebook, a depot's spreadsheet, and a packer's file, each holding one slice of the same animal's history with no link between them. An animal record ties purchase, health, movement, and outcome data to one ID so the full history is in one place.
- 02
Cost of gain
What it costs to put a pound of weight on an animal over a given period: feed and yardage divided by the pounds gained.
Cost of gain is the number that tells an operation whether holding an animal longer is worth it. It depends on accurate feed and weight records over time, which is exactly the kind of data entry that a paper system or a spreadsheet tends to lose.
- 03
Data import and reconciliation
Bringing outside spreadsheets and files, from a dairy, a feedlot, or a packer, into one system, and matching the records back to the right animal.
Most operations already have data, just scattered across a dairy's file, a feedlot's export, and a packer's carcass sheet, usually in slightly different formats with the occasional typo in the ID. Reconciliation matches those records back by ear tag where possible and holds the ones that do not match for a person to check, rather than silently dropping or guessing at them.
Read more- 04
Dispatch
The work of matching loads to drivers and trucks, and tracking each one from pickup to delivery.
For a livestock hauler, dispatch has historically lived in a notebook, a phone, and a dispatcher's memory. Software does not replace the dispatcher's judgment; it replaces the notebook, one place to see every load, assign it, and log every change so the yard and the driver both know what changed and when.
Read more- 05
EID tag
An electronic ear tag that carries a unique animal ID, readable by a scanner without a visual read, alongside the standard visual tag.
Since November 2024, USDA (APHIS) requires the official ear tags on covered cattle and bison moving interstate to be both visually and electronically readable. An EID read is a common starting point for the software we build: the number that ties a purchase record, a health record, and a carcass record back to the same animal.
Read more- 06
Grower settlement
The payment made to a contract grower for the animals they held, based on performance, weight, and the terms agreed at placement.
A settlement often runs in two stages: a down payment at delivery and a final settlement at shipment once the real numbers are in. Getting a settlement right depends on accurate weight, cost, and performance records for the animals that were actually placed with that grower.
- 07
Hand-coded website
A website built directly in HTML, CSS, and code, not assembled in a drag-and-drop page builder or hosted on a proprietary CMS.
Hand-coded sites are faster, more portable, and don't lock you into a platform's monthly fee. Every Mule build is hand-coded; there is no Wix, Squarespace, or other page-builder layer between you and your site.
Read more- 08
Hauler portal
A login for a hired trucking company that shows only its own loads, not the whole dispatch board.
When a hauling business fills some loads with its own trucks and others with hired companies, a hauler portal is how the hired company sees and manages its own work without seeing anyone else's. Visibility is scoped by who is actually involved in a load, not handed out wholesale.
Read more- 09
Landed cost
The full cost of an animal once it has arrived and is on the ground: purchase price plus freight, commission, and any other cost to get it there.
Landed cost is what a buyer actually needs to know before deciding what to do with an animal next, not just the price paid at the sale. Software that tracks it right pulls in freight and fees automatically rather than leaving someone to add them up by hand later.
- 10
Load board
A screen showing every load that needs to be filled or is in progress, usually split by status: needs filling, filled, in transit, delivered.
A load board is the dispatcher's main working screen. A good one shows status at a glance, lets a load be assigned to a named driver rather than just a truck, and gives a week or month view for the loads still ahead.
Read more- 11
Lot
A group of animals managed and costed together, usually because they arrived, were placed, or will ship together.
A lot is the unit most feedlot, calf-raising, and hauling software actually runs on: costs get spread across a lot, a lot gets placed with one grower, a lot ships together. Individual animal records still sit underneath it, but the lot is the working unit for day-to-day decisions.
- 12
Offline-first app
Software built from the start to work with no signal, not adapted afterward to merely tolerate a dropped connection.
A barn, a yard, or a truck cannot assume a connection. Offline-first means the app reads and writes to the device first, and treats syncing to the server as a separate step that happens whenever signal shows up, rather than something the whole screen depends on to function.
Read more- 13
One-time build (quote-only)
Paying once for a project you then own outright, priced from a written quote rather than a published rate.
The appeal is ownership, not a specific number. Buy the project once and it is yours on completion, running on your own accounts. Mule does not publish prices; every one-time build is quoted from your own brief, with the line items shown before you sign. If a lump sum is not workable yet, the subscription lane gets the same project built with nothing down, and the honest trade for that is that Mule owns it until you buy it out.
Read more- 14
Owner-of-record
The legal and technical owner of a project's domain, data, hosting, and code. At Mule the domain and the data are yours on every plan; the code is yours once you have bought the project, either outright or through the buyout.
The single most important detail in any software or website contract, and the one most studios answer vaguely on purpose. Ask it directly: if I pay monthly, do I own the project or am I licensing it, and what happens if I stop paying? Mule's answer, in full: your domain and your data are registered to you and stay yours on every plan, no exceptions. The project itself is yours on completion if you buy it once, and Mule's until you buy it out if you subscribe, on a buyout that falls monthly to zero.
Read more- 15
Panel reader vs wand reader
Two ways to read an EID tag: a panel reader mounted at a chute or gate, and a handheld wand reader carried to the animal.
A panel reader reads automatically as an animal passes through, which suits a chute or an alley where the flow already exists. A wand reader is carried to the animal one at a time, useful in a pen or a pasture where nothing forces a single-file line. We build software that accepts a read from either, because most operations end up using both depending on where they are.
- 16
RFID (animal ear tags)
The radio frequency identification standard behind EID tags: ISO 11784 and 11785, written in either FDX-B or HDX format.
FDX-B and HDX are two tag encoding formats under the ISO 11784/11785 standard, and a reader has to support the format the tag was written in. Most panel and wand readers sold for livestock handle both, but a mismatch is a real, avoidable failure mode we check for during a build.
- 17
Shrink
The weight an animal loses in transit and handling: the difference between the weight at shipping and the weight at arrival.
Shrink affects what a load is actually worth on arrival versus what it weighed at pickup, and it is a normal, expected part of hauling live animals rather than a sign something went wrong. Settlement records that account for it honestly are one of the first things growers and haulers check.
- 18
Sync queue
The list of changes made offline, held on the device until a connection returns, then sent to the server in order.
Every record entered with no signal sits in the sync queue until the device reconnects. A well-built queue handles the awkward cases: two people editing the same animal offline, a record entered twice, a sync interrupted halfway through. This is the part of offline software that is easy to get wrong and expensive to get wrong quietly.
- 19
Yardage
A daily per-head charge for holding an animal at a yard or depot: the pen, the labor, and the upkeep, separate from feed.
Yardage is one of the costs that gets spread across a lot when the daily numbers are tallied. Getting it right matters for a depot or a custom feeder whose margin depends on the yardage rate actually covering what the yard costs to run.
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