Software for feedlots.
Mule builds intake, lot and cost-of-gain systems for feedlots and backgrounders: weigh-in and EID capture at the scale, pen and lot tracking, and dashboards that roll pen-rider records up into a real close-out number. Built around how cattle actually move through your yard, not a generic template.
What we know about feedlots.
A feedlot's records break at the scale house first. Trucks come in from different sellers on different days, cattle get weighed, sorted and shrunk, and that intake data has to become the baseline every cost-of-gain and close-out number is measured against. If that number starts life on a scale head printout that someone re-types into a spreadsheet that night, small transcription errors compound across every calculation downstream.
Day to day, a pen rider's health and treatment records are their own weak point: written on a clipboard riding the pens, then typed up back at the office, with the gap between the two a place where a treatment or a death can go unrecorded until it shows up as a discrepancy at close-out.
Why a feedlot picks Mule.
- 01Scale and EID capture at intake tied directly to the animal, pen and lot, not a printout someone re-enters by hand.
- 02Pen and lot tracking that follows cattle through the yard, from intake to shipping, without the record splitting at every pen move.
- 03Field apps for pen riders that work in the yard with no signal, so treatment and death records get logged once, at the pen.
- 04Dashboards that turn intake weights, feed and treatment records into real cost-of-gain and close-out numbers, not a spreadsheet rebuilt every closeout.
What feedlots usually need.
From feedlots.
Can pen riders log treatments without signal in the yard?
Yes. The field app runs offline, a pen rider logs a treatment or a death at the pen and it syncs automatically once the device is back in range of a signal.
Can the system capture EID tags at intake?
Yes. Since November 5, 2024, covered cattle moving interstate carry ear tags that USDA requires to be both visually and electronically readable, and we build the intake capture to read both, with a paired Bluetooth reader and manual entry as the fallback when a tag won't read.
We already have a scale head at intake. Can you pull that data in?
If your scale head can export its data, by file, serial connection or Bluetooth, we build the system to pull weights in directly and tie them to the animal, pen and lot, instead of leaving that number stuck on the scale's own screen.
Our cost-of-gain spreadsheet is a mess but it's what we have. Can you bring it in?
Yes. We import your existing intake, feed and treatment records as part of the build, and map them to the new pen and lot structure, so your history comes with you instead of starting over.
Who owns the intake, feed and close-out data once this is built?
You do. It's your yard's data: intake weights, feed records, treatments, close-outs. We build the system, you keep the data, and you can export or move on at any point.