Digital Paddock Book

Know what you've got. Wherever it is.

Sapien's Digital Paddock Book is purpose-built for large-scale livestock enterprises. Replace spreadsheets and paper records with real-time inventory visibility across every paddock, every property, from muster count-outs to year-end trading statements.

10+

Years in the industry

Working with northern pastoral enterprises since the early 2000s

Live

Real-time shared records

One consistent picture across your whole enterprise

0

Paper required

Replace muster worksheets, spreadsheets and count-out books

Built for
Extensive pastoral stations Large breeding enterprises Northern & remote operations 2 PICs to 20+ across multiple properties
The problem we solve

Running stock across big country shouldn't mean flying blind on numbers

Extensive operations manage tens of thousands of head across vast properties, often with lean teams and complex muster logistics. Keeping an accurate picture of what's where, and what it all means on paper, is harder than it should be.

Most properties are still relying on paper count-outs, station hand notebooks, or patchy spreadsheets that only one person understands. When a muster is done and the trucks have left, how confident are you in the numbers?

What we hear from producers
  • Paper records that live in someone's ute

    Muster count-outs done on paper, re-keyed later, if at all. One missed animal means the whole picture shifts.

  • Spreadsheets that only work for one person

    Excel-based paddock books that break when someone leaves or a column gets moved. No shared visibility, no audit trail.

  • No single view across the whole operation

    Multiple properties, multiple systems, multiple people, and no single source of truth for stock counts by paddock.

  • Stocktypes that don't keep up with time

    Manual updates to age classes that drift out of date, leading to inaccurate inventories when it matters most.

The Sapien paddock book is designed to capture these numbers in the way the animals are handled. No virtual paddocks, no complicated moves for every stock type, just the muster summarised on a single page so you can sanity check before committing.

Rob Bernabe

Head of Product, Sapien Technology

Designed with extensive pastoralists

Core capabilities

Everything you need to run a clean set of books

Six integrated capabilities that work together to give you a complete, current picture of your livestock inventory, without the admin overhead.

Paddock & Property Overview

View your full inventory on a paddock map or list, broken down by Stocktype. See your complete inventory at property level at any time, no recalculating required.

Muster Recording

Round 1 and 2 entry with mustered in/out, culls and castrates, weaners, and lost and found summaries. Review complete records of every past muster on one page.

Animal Movements

Drag-and-drop paddock moves, purchase entries, death records, sales and inter-property transfers, with despatch notices containing NVDs and carrier details sent automatically.

Reporting Suite

Trading statements, branding and weaning reports, sales and transfer reports including transporter details. Everything you need for the accountant, the bank, and the board.

Automated Birthdays

All stock types roll over on an annualised birthday, automatically, to keep your inventory accurate year-round without manual age-class updates.

User Roles & Access

Owner and Manager tiers with access controls by property. Delegate access across properties and teams without losing oversight or data integrity.

Muster recording

Built for the way an extensive muster actually works

Extensive pastoralists run big mustering operations, large mobs, multiple stock types, bulls, breeders and young stock all drafted at once, with trucks ready to cart. The Sapien Paddock Book is designed around this reality.

  1. 1

    Count out by mob

    Enter the counts on a single "count-out" page, organised the way the animals are handled, not the way a software designer imagined it.

  2. 2

    Capture type changes and departures

    Record weanings, cull movements, castrations, and truck departures, all in the one system, not a separate application.

  3. 3

    Sanity check before committing

    The whole muster is summarised on a single page so you can review counts, spot discrepancies, and confirm before the records are locked in.

  4. 4

    Reconcile losses

    Lost and found tracking lets you reconcile each muster, building knowledge of mustering efficiency and identifying paddocks where fence integrity needs attention.

Muster summary screen showing livestock inventory and movements at Moonlight Yards, with counts by stock type before final commit

Muster summary screen, full operation on one page, with counts by stock type before final commit.

Request a Sample Report

Enter your details and we'll send you a sample Paddock Book muster report so you can see exactly what the output looks like.

What gets captured

Every part of the muster, accounted for

Six distinct movement categories mean nothing falls through the cracks, from the first drafting gate to the last truck off the property.

Mustered In

Record the mustering of single or multiple paddocks. Set starting counts to reconcile against, showing what each stock type had before the muster began.

Type Change

Track calves being weaned, heifers and breeders being culled. The system maintains accurate counts of your active breeding herd separate from non-breeding stock destined for sale.

Returned

Capture the head counts of animals returning to paddocks after processing. Ready for the next muster with an accurate opening count.

Branded

Track reproduction rates with new brandings. Record calves returned with mothers and cleanskin weaners, your branding percentage calculated automatically.

Departed

Record head counts trucking for sale or transfer, with despatch notices containing NVDs and carrier details automatically sent to the receiving property.

Lost & Found

Reconcile the muster to flag abnormal losses or missing animals. Build knowledge of mustering efficiency over time and identify where fences need attention.

Know your numbers

Three estimates of the same herd

In extensive operations, a perfectly accurate inventory rarely exists. Distance, incomplete musters, and time all intervene. What the business actually works with are estimates, different interpretations of the same underlying facts, each created for a different purpose.

Operational 01

The Paddock Book

Financial 02

The Cattle Book

Audit 03

EID/Bang Tail Audit

Get the Three Estimates Explainer

Enter your details and we'll send you the full explainer on how paddock book, cattle book, and audit estimates work — and which one to use when.

New Feature · KoolStock Mobile

The muster team stays in the field. The office gets everything they need.

The people running your muster, the ringers, the contractors, the stockmen, they're good with cattle and horses and helicopters. They're not sitting at a computer. They've never been. The new KoolStock muster notes feature is built around that reality.

Now the muster team can capture everything on their phone, counts, paddock notes, voice-to-text observations, photos of tally sheets, photos of NVD forms, photos of loaded trucks. All of it stored against the date, yards, and paddock. When the muster is initiated in the office, the notes are already there. No phone call. No email. No chasing anyone down.

Voice-to-Text Notes

Speak the count-out instead of typing it. Works with standard phone voice-to-text, no special hardware, no training, no app learning curve.

Photo of Paper Records

If the tally was done on paper in the yards, just photograph it. The image is stored against the muster date and paddock, the office can read it and enter the numbers.

NVD & Truck Photos

Photograph the NVD form and the loaded truck before it leaves. Stored against the movement record, no paper to chase, no details lost between the yards and the station office.

Paddock & Yards Context

Notes are captured against the correct date, yards, and paddock, so when the office opens the muster in the Paddock Book, everything is already in the right place.

How it works — from yards to office
Y

In the yards

Muster team runs the operation. Cattle worked, counted and drafted.

Sapien cow head logo

KoolStock captures it

Voice notes, typed counts, photos of paper or NVDs, all logged against the paddock and date.

Sapien cow head logo

Syncs to the cloud

Everything stored against the muster record, automatically, as it's captured.

Sapien cow head logo

Office initiates the muster

Opens the muster in the Paddock Book. Notes and photos are already there, ready to enter.

Muster committed

Inventory updated. Trading records current. Data visible enterprise-wide. No phone calls. No emails. Done.

Sapien logo

Early Life

Calves & weaners

Sapien logo

Breeding Female

Breeders & heifers

Sapien logo

Non-Breeding

Steers & culls

Sapien logo

Breeding Male

Bulls & sires

Smarter inventory with Stocktypes

Inventory value goes beyond headcount

Animals are grouped by sex, age, and breeding status, and automatically progress to the next Stocktype on their "farm birthday." Your inventory reflects real-time value without manual updates.

  • Plan pasture, feed and water needs more accurately by knowing the true class mix in each paddock
  • Manage stocking rates with precision, not just total head, but the right breakdown for carrying capacity
  • Align with financial reporting and valuation systems that require stock-class breakdowns
  • Color-coded Stocktypes give instant visual recognition of what's in each paddock from the map view
  • Automatic age-class rollover on the farm birthday, no manual updates needed through the year
Download the Stocktypes guide →
Operational visibility

See your whole operation at a glance

The paddock map gives you an immediate visual summary of stock distribution across your property, by paddock, by Stocktype, by count. No digging through spreadsheets.

Real-time Location

Know what animals are in which paddocks at any point in time

Accurate Counts

Stock numbers updated in real time as movements and musters are recorded

Audit-Ready

Complete records for trading, movements, deaths and musters, always current

Multi-Property

Switch between properties in the same account, one login, one picture

Paddock map view showing cattle herd with color-coded Stocktype icons and head counts by paddock

Paddock map view, color-coded by Stocktype, with head counts visible by paddock.

Scale & multi-property

Built for enterprises, not just single properties

Whether you're managing 10,000 head across 2 PICs or overseeing a portfolio of pastoral stations, Sapien's Paddock Book scales with your operation, and gives you a consolidated view across all of it.

Multiple PICs, one account

Manage all your properties under a single login with a consolidated inventory view across the enterprise.

Inter-property transfers

Record transfers between your own properties with automatic NVD generation and receiving-property notification.

Delegated access

Owner and Manager roles give property-level access control, so managers see what they need without full enterprise visibility.

Shared access across your team

Multiple users can access the same records, the station manager, the bookkeeper, the owner, without anyone maintaining a separate copy or emailing spreadsheets around.

Works alongside your existing setup

No specialist hardware required. The Paddock Book works on standard computers and tablets, no complex installation or IT infrastructure needed on property.

Grows with your operation

Add properties and PICs as your enterprise grows, the system is priced and designed for scale.

Reporting

The reports your business actually needs

Branding & Weaning Report

Track reproduction rates with new brandings and weaning numbers, your branding percentage automatically calculated from muster records.

Sales & Transfer Report

Complete records of all outgoing stock movements, including transporter details and NVD references, ready for compliance and due diligence.

Muster History

Review records of every past muster, date, counts, departures and reconciliation, building an accurate picture of property performance over time.

Inventory Snapshot

Current stock numbers by paddock and property, at any point in time, for bank reviews, board reports, or your own planning purposes.

Request a Sample Trading Statement

Enter your details and we'll send you a sample trading statement so you can see exactly what your year-end reporting looks like out of the Paddock Book.

See it in practice, on your kind of operation

A Paddock Book demo takes about 30 minutes. We'll show you the muster workflow, the map view, and the reporting, and you can ask about your specific setup.

sales@sapien.com.au
Taking it further

Add KoolSoftware for individual animal data, crush-side recording, and full herd performance tracking

Learn About KoolSoftware →