My Block Hand Small Farm. Smart Tools.

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Small farm. Smart tools.

Keep track of everything on your block.

My Block Hand is the farm hand in your pocket for lifestyle blocks and small farms. Animals, paddocks, grazing, jobs, reminders, eggs and money — all in one place, so nothing slips your mind and every decision is backed by your own records.

🐑 160+ lifestyle blocks and small farms keep their records here.

Built on a Northland lifestyle block. Shaped by real small-farm use.

Works in your browser today — no download needed. The iOS app is on the App Store now, and Android is close behind.

One account, everywhere — phone in the paddock, laptop at the kitchen table.

Animals & herds Paddocks & grazing Jobs & reminders
My Block Hand Today's Brief dashboard, showing a real farm command centre on Red Ants Farm
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Animals

Every animal's story in one place.

Treatments, weights, condition checks, breeding records and NAIT details — a lifetime history for every animal and herd. No more flicking back through notebooks trying to remember which ewe got drenched, or when.

Know your animals. Breed from your best.
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Paddocks

Know which paddock is ready.

Set seasonal rest targets for each paddock and My Block Hand tracks how long each one has rested since its last grazing. Longer rests grow more grass and break the worm lifecycle — the app tells you when each paddock is ready so you don't have to keep it in your head.

Better grazing. Cleaner pasture. Healthier animals.

Jobs & reminders

Let the app carry the mental load.

Most of us farm before and after work. Jobs, seasonal reminders, withholding periods and NAIT deadlines all live in one calendar — so the things that matter surface when they're due, instead of waking you up at 2am.

Nothing forgotten. Less to carry in your head.
🐓

Flocks

Know the real cost of every egg.

Track flock numbers, daily egg counts and feed costs in one place. Record poultry sales, feed purchases and flock expenses — then let My Block Hand show you exactly what each dozen eggs is costing you to produce.

Simple poultry records. Clear numbers.

From real blocks

What people are saying.

“So easy to setup and use … I just love how visual that map feature is to help manage my paddocks. Everyone should definitely give this NZ made app a go.”

— Kayleigh, lifestyle-block owner

“I've wanted something like this for a while, and it's better than my whiteboard.”

— Becky, lifestyle-block owner

“I've got 10 horses across lots of small paddocks and a few larger ones, and I try to rest each one for 20 days. My Block Hand made setting all that up and monitoring it easy.”

— Horse owner · 10 horses, via Facebook

Why records matter

Better records make you a better farmer.

Notebooks get wet, spreadsheets get stale, and memory gets full. When everything lives in one place, patterns start showing up — which animals thrive, which paddocks recover fastest, what your eggs really cost. My Block Hand turns everyday record-keeping into better decisions, without the spreadsheet that takes an hour to update.

See the patterns

Lifetime histories for animals, paddocks and flocks reveal what's actually working — which ewes handle worm pressure without help, which paddock always bounces back first, which hens are earning their keep.

Save real money

Know your true costs — feed, treatments, per-dozen egg costs, what each herd earns and spends. Treat the animals that need it instead of blanket-drenching everything, and watch the difference in your records.

Stay on the right side of the rules

NAIT tag deadlines, withholding periods after treatments, movement records — the compliance stuff is built in and surfaces automatically, so it's handled before it becomes a headache.

See it in action

See the everyday screens before you sign up.

These previews show the My Block Hand web app: animals, flocks, paddocks, jobs, money and the farm calendar — all in your browser.

Private farm data stays inside each user account.
AnimalsHerd movement
My Block Hand Animals screen, showing real herds on a Northland lifestyle block

Open herds, see location, add treatments and move groups without digging through records.

FlocksEggs & birds
My Block Hand Flocks screen, showing real flocks and egg production

Track flock numbers, egg collection, poultry sales and costs from one tidy card.

PaddocksGrazing decisions
My Block Hand Paddocks screen, showing real paddock zones and grazing status

See paddocks, rest status, occupancy and next grazing options at a glance.

Farm CalendarWhat is coming up
My Block Hand Farm Calendar screen, showing a real week's jobs and withholding periods

Keep jobs, reminders, treatments and due dates visible in a farm-first calendar view.

How it works

Start simple. Build a picture that helps you farm better.

  1. 1Add your animals and paddocksTakes a few minutes. Herds, flocks, paddocks and zones — set up the farm the way you actually run it.
  2. 2Log things as they happenA treatment, a job done, today's eggs, a sale, a herd move — each takes seconds on your phone, in the paddock, gumboots on.
  3. 3Let the reminders carry the loadJobs, seasonal tasks, withholding periods and NAIT deadlines surface when they're due. You stop having to remember everything.
  4. 4Watch the picture buildEvery record adds to your farm's history. Over time, patterns emerge: which animals thrive, which ones cost you, and where your farm is improving.

Weekly newsletter

My Block Hand Bulletin

Practical farming tips, reminders that match your season, app updates and real stories from Red Ants Farm — every week, free in your inbox.

Good questions

Things people ask before signing up.

What does it cost?

It's free to use right now. When paid plans launch, it'll be one fair flat price — about the cost of a coffee a month, no tiers, no lock-in — and everyone who joins early gets 3 months free as an early-supporter thank-you.

It's free to use — set up your farm and log animals, paddocks, jobs, reminders and money at no cost. No tiers, no lock-in.

Does it work in the paddock, with no signal?

Yes. My Block Hand works offline — log eggs, jobs, treatments and moves with no reception, and it syncs automatically when you're back in coverage.

Phone, tablet or computer?

All of them, with one account. Quick logging on your phone in the paddock; the full picture on your laptop at the kitchen table. The iOS app is on the App Store now, Android is close behind, and the web app works on any device today.

All of them, with one account. Quick logging on your phone in the paddock; the full picture on your laptop at the kitchen table.

What animals can I track?

Sheep, cattle, goats, pigs, horses, alpacas, poultry and more — plus pets. Each species gets its own breeding milestones and care schedules, all editable.

Who owns my farm data?

You do. Your records are private to your account, you can export everything at any time, and if you ever leave you can delete your account and data completely.

Is it really built for New Zealand?

Yes — by an actual Northland lifestyle-block owner who uses it every day. NZ seasons, NAIT reminders, withholding periods and local language are built in, not bolted on. That hasn't been watered down by going worldwide; it's the reason the app knows what a drench withholding period is in the first place.

I'm not in New Zealand — does it work for me?

Yes. Set your country when you sign up and My Block Hand follows your calendar, not ours: paddock rest targets use your hemisphere's seasons, money shows in your currency, and reminders arrive on your clock. NAIT and NLIS only appear for New Zealand and Australia, so you won't be nagged about a scheme you're not in. The farming itself — grazing rotation, breeding, treatments, withholding periods — is the same job on a block in Devon, Vermont or Northland.

Free to start

Start your farm records today.

Start free in your browser, or download the iOS app from the App Store — Android is close behind. Early birds get 3 months free when paid plans launch — then it's one flat, coffee-a-month price. Your records, your block, one place.

Set up in minutes and log your first record today — animals, paddocks, jobs, reminders and money. Your records, your block, one place.

Today's Brief

Good morning

Here's today's farm brief.

🌱 Grazing

No grazing data yet

Action centre

Quick capture

One-hand friendly

Animals

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Flocks

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Flocks

Birds and performance

Recent egg records

Latest entries

Paddocks

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Finances

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🌾 Feed store

Jobs

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Reminders

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Farm calendar

Calendar

Month view

This month

Loading farm calendar...

Next 14 days

0 items

Pets

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Cats, dogs & other pets

Worming, flea & registration

Farm register

Equipment

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Farm register

Products & Chemicals

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Animal records

All animals

Tag Name Species Class Breed Herd DOB Paddock Days in paddock Value Open

Animals

Animals not in a herd

0 animals not in a herd

Choose a herd for each animal. Once assigned, the animal will move out of this list and appear under that herd in Animals.

Name Tag Species Class Breed Assign herd

Herd details

Herd

Animals, paddock and upcoming work.

Paddock details

Paddock

Status, stock and grazing history.

Paddock records

All paddocks

Name Size Unit Last grazed Rest Growing Current herds Open

Finance records

All transactions

Date Type Category Amount Notes Open

New stock record

Animal

Photo

Animal record

Condition check

Animal record

Birth records

Animal record

Breeding

Record who produced this animal. Used for ancestry tracking and selecting breeding stock.

Species terminology will update from the animal species.

Animal record

Record birth outcome

Record how this pregnancy ended. Recording live young creates an animal record for each, pre-filled with parents, herd and species.

Animal record

Record weaning

Marking one Lost before weaning retires it from your herd with an exit record — its record and its place in the pedigree are kept. A weaning weight is saved to the animal's weight history.

Animal record

Pedigree

Family tree built from recorded sires and dams. Print or save as PDF to give to buyers.

Animal record

Milestone timeline

Pregnancy checks, vaccinations, birth and young-care milestones from this animal's breeding events. Tick each off as it's done. Editable starting defaults — not veterinary advice.

Animal record

Treatment history

Lifetime record

Animal history

Bulk stock entry

Add multiple animals

Enter a range to preview tags.

New paddock

Paddock details

Target rest period by season Optional — leave a season blank to use My Block Hand's default for that season. To update every paddock in a zone at once instead of one by one, use "Set rest targets for zone" on Paddocks.

Bulk update

Set rest targets

Leave a season blank to reset those paddocks back to My Block Hand's default for that season. This overwrites any per-paddock overrides already set within this zone.

Herd movement

Move a herd

Choose a herd to see its current paddock.

New job

Job details

Job type
Herds

Work details

Withholding: not set

Recurring details

No repeat set.

Treatment details

Choose an animal or herd.

Withholding warning

Paddock withholding active

New reminder

Reminder details

New finance record

Finance details

Finance

New invoice

Each line can be allocated to its own part of the farm.

Invoice lines

Finance

What's making money

Income minus the costs you've allocated to each part of the farm.

New equipment

Equipment details

Service record

Equipment service

New product

Product details

Withholding periods (from product label)

Calendar quick add

Selected day

Create a dated farm record from this day.

Tip: tap an existing calendar item to open it, or tap empty space on a day to add something new.

Settings

Account data

Your records are saved under your account.

My Block Hand v152.4.356 · Play badge fix

Today's Brief

Set your farm location

Set this once — My Block Hand will remember it.

or search for your town

Welcome

Log in to My Block Hand

Enter your email or username and password to continue.

Log in with your email or username. Password is required.

Account recovery

Reset your password

Enter the email address or username for your My Block Hand account.

If the account exists, a reset link will be sent by email.

Account recovery

Choose a new password

Password must be at least 8 characters.

About My Block Hand

Built by a Small Farmer. For Small Farmers.

My Block Hand wasn't created in a boardroom or by a large software company.

It started on a lifestyle block in Northland, New Zealand — with a notebook, a drench gun, and a growing suspicion that there had to be a better way.

Like many lifestyle block owners, I was managing livestock, paddocks, jobs and treatments across what quickly became too many things to keep in my head. Which paddock had rested long enough? Which animals had been drenched recently? Which ones kept needing treatment and which ones sailed through summer without a problem?

Those questions matter more than most small farmers realise. Blanket drenching every animal on a fixed schedule drives drench resistance — one of the most serious problems facing small farm owners in New Zealand. Moving stock back onto paddocks too soon puts them straight into contamination. And breeding from animals without keeping records means you cannot tell which ones are genuinely thriving and which ones are costing you the most to maintain.

I looked for software that could help with this. Most systems were built for large commercial operations — expensive, complicated, and completely disconnected from the reality of farming before and after work.

So I built My Block Hand.

It started as a tool to manage my own block and has grown into a platform shaped by real small-farm use. Every feature asks the same question:

Would this actually make a difference on a real small farm?

The answer drives everything: paddock rest tracking, FAMACHA and FEC recording, targeted treatment logging, breeding history and animal condition scores — all designed to be quick enough in the paddock and useful enough to keep coming back to.

Our goal is to give every lifestyle block owner the records and visibility they need to farm smarter — not harder.

🌱 Rotational Grazing🩺 Targeted Treatment🐾 Breeding Records🐓 Flocks & Eggs✅ Jobs💰 Farm Money
Meet the founder

I'm Alby Redman, a lifestyle block owner from Northland, New Zealand. My Block Hand started as a tool to manage my own animals and paddocks, and is growing into a platform designed to help small farmers farm smarter across New Zealand and Australia.

About this card

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Feedback

Send us feedback

Send a bug report, feature idea, or general note from real farm use.

We read every message and use it to improve My Block Hand.

Changelog

What is new

Weaning — the number that tells you how the season really went 🌾

Once you've recorded a birth, the breeding record gains a Record weaning button. Mark each young as weaned or lost, add a weaning weight if you weighed them, and My Block Hand works out your survival to weaning and average weaning weight. A loss retires that animal properly (its record and pedigree stay), and weaning weights go straight into the animal's weight history. Do this every season and you'll start to see which ewes and cows raise the best young.

Every animal's story now has an ending 📖

When an animal dies, is culled, sold or goes missing, tap Record exit on its record — pick what happened and why (worms, age, sold as breeding stock…). The animal retires from your herd but its full record stays. Over the years this shows which lines thrive on your block. Sales can post the income to Finances for you.

Did the drench actually work? 💉

Log a drench on an animal and My Block Hand quietly adds a follow-up reminder about 12 days later — the right window for a quick condition check or FEC. Close the loop and you'll learn which animals shrug off worms without help, and whether your drench is still doing its job.

Share your farm with your household 👨‍👩‍👧

Most blocks are run by more than one pair of gumboots. In Settings → Farm sharing you can now share your farm with someone in your household — they log in with their own free account and you both see and update the same records. Remove access anytime.

Rain gauge ☔️

Log the morning gauge in two taps — a new Rainfall tile on Today's Brief shows today, the last 7 days and the month so far. Over time your rainfall record helps make sense of paddock growth and rest times.

Incubation & hatching 🐣

Setting eggs? Start an Incubation batch from the Flocks + menu — pick the bird and it sets the days for you (chicken 21, duck 28 and more), then drops candling and hatch-day reminders straight into your calendar. Mark the hatch when the chicks are out.

Feed store 🌾

Feed is the biggest running cost on most blocks. The new Feed store card in Finances tracks purchases and bags on hand — log a purchase (it can post the expense for you), knock bags off as you use them, and see your last price per bag and 4-week feed spend. It flags a feed when you're running low.

Quick log from anywhere ⚡

The + button at the top now starts with a Quick log group — today's eggs, a herd move or a treatment in two taps, from any screen. The usual "Add new" list sits right below it. Settings → "What do you track?" also now explains which tools appear on their own (Production, NAIT Compliance) so nothing feels hidden.

Track your meat production 🥩

Raising animals for the freezer? Open an animal's record and tap Harvest / home-kill to record the dressed weight, value and whether it was home-kill or works — it logs the meat under Production and retires the animal from your herd while keeping its full record for future reference. Meat birds have the same thing: Process for meat on the flock logs the yield and updates the bird count. Your Production screen now totals meat (kg and $) alongside milk and wool.

Your week at a glance + animal photos 📸

Today's Brief now opens with a "This week on your block" card — everything due in the next 7 days (jobs, reminders, animal and pet health) in one tap, plus a weekly heads-up notification so nothing sneaks up on you. And you can now add a photo to any animal or pet — tap "Add photo" on their record. Bella looks a lot better than a row of text.

Pets are here 🐕🐈

New Pets section for the cats and dogs on your block. Record each pet with breed, date of birth and microchip, keep a full treatment history (worming, flea & tick, vaccinations and more) with a "next due" date, and for dogs store the NZ registration number and expiry. Due treatments and registration expiry show up in your Reminders and send you a notification, just like your other farm reminders. Turn Pets on or off anytime in Settings → "What do you track?".

Flocks: sex & age in weeks 🐔

Your flock records now include a Sex option (Mixed, Hens, Roosters, Pullets, Cockerels or Straight run), and every flock card shows the birds' age in weeks worked out from the hatch/start date. Set a flock's start date and the age keeps itself up to date.

Animals, now by species 🐄

Your Animals screen now groups everything by species first. The header shows how many species, herds and animals you have, and tapping a species drills down to its herds, then the animals in each herd, then the individual animal record. Same familiar cards — just tidier when you have a lot of stock. Each animal's record is also growing into a full profile: diary (worming, vaccination, shearing, farrier/hoof care and more), breeding records with a milestone timeline, identity/passport details, and production — all in one place. More of that rolling out over the coming updates.

Choose what you track 🌱

New in Settings: turn tools on or off — Animals, Poultry, Paddocks, Finances, Farm Map, Equipment, Products & Chemicals — so your dashboard shows only what you actually use. Turn off what you don't need for a cleaner, simpler screen. Your records are never deleted, and you can switch anything back on anytime from Settings → "What do you track?".

Owner dashboard 2.0

My Block Hand growth command centre

Loading owner data...

View landing page ↗

Latest signups

New farmers joining My Block Hand

Shows account details captured at signup.

Feedback centre

Product signals from real users

Contact messages

People reaching out directly

Backup recovery

User backups and restore tools

Owner only · restore creates a safety backup first
BackupCreatedReasonRecordsActions
Enter a user email or username to view backups.

User management

Accounts, activity and record depth

Backup status is visible. Recovery actions are in Backup Recovery.
UserContactFarm / locationPropertyAnimals / enterprisesMain goalJoined / loginOpt-inRecordsBackupsActions

New breeding record

Breeding details

Use this form for a breeding event. The female animal is the sow/ewe/doe/cow being bred. The male animal is the boar/ram/buck/bull used. Pedigree dam/mother is optional and only needed for family-line records.

New poultry flock

Poultry flock

New pet

Pet

Photo

Treatment history

Worming, flea & more

Heat history

Seasons & next expected

Breeding & litters

Matings & due dates

New treatment

Treatment

Log heat

Heat

New breeding

Breeding

Egg record

Record eggs

Egg records

Egg history

Choose a year to view monthly egg totals.

Monthly records

0 records

Egg records

Recent egg records

Your 10 most recent entries, across all flocks.

Poultry finance

Cost per egg

Monthly records

Poultry finance

Bird sales · price vs age

Price vs age

Sales

Poultry finance

Poultry finance history

Choose a year to view monthly poultry net position.

Monthly poultry records

$0 net · 0 records

Herd finance

Herd finance history

Choose a year to view monthly herd net position.

Monthly herd records

$0 net · 0 records

Poultry money

Poultry sale

New production record

Record production

Meat production

Harvest / home-kill

This records the meat yield and retires the animal from your herd. Its full record is kept for reference.

Meat production

Process birds for meat

This logs the meat yield and reduces the flock's bird count.

Animal record

Record exit

This retires the animal from your active herd but keeps its full record. The reason matters — over time it shows which lines thrive on your block and which cost you.

Rainfall

Log rain

A quick daily habit that builds a real picture of your block — rainfall feeds future paddock and grazing insights. Emptying the gauge more than once a day? Log each reading; they add up for the day.

Recent rain

Rainfall

Rainfall history

Total rainfall for each month. Change the year to look back over your record.

By month

Milk-fed young stock

Hand rearing

Track every feed for milk-fed young stock — a bottle lamb, or a mob of calves on a feeder. Group animals into a herd and I'll total up each mix for you. Tap Fed now each time you feed, or Fed all for the whole group. Amounts are yours — nothing is predicted.

Mix for the next feed

Per feed, whole group

Animals you're feeding

Pasture

Cover & recovery

Rest days tell you how long it's been. This tells you what's actually there. Log an entry reading before stock go in and checks while they graze, to see how much they've eaten and when they've hit your move-off point. Log a residual as they come off, and it tracks the regrowth back to ready.

Targets for this paddock

Set these first

Log a reading

Recent readings

How this works

What's a residual, and why does it matter?

The residual is what you leave behind when stock come off. It matters more than most people expect: graze below what the plant needs and you cut its ability to regrow, so the next round is slower and, over time, the sward thins out. Leave a bit more and it comes back faster. There's no single right number — it depends on your stock, your season and your block, which is exactly what tracking it will show you.

The 3-leaf check — free, no gear needed

Perennial ryegrass holds a maximum of three live leaves per tiller. Once the third appears, the first starts to die. So around the 2.5–3 leaf stage is the sweet spot: graze earlier and you get less feed and slower regrowth (the plant hasn't rebuilt its reserves); leave it later and the oldest leaf is dying, so you're accumulating waste rather than feed.

How to check: pull 10 ryegrass tillers from across the paddock — they're usually red or purple at the base — and count the live leaves on each.

It also tells you if your round is right: consistently 4+ leaves means it's too slow, consistently 1.5 means it's too fast.

How to measure your pasture

Sward stick or ruler (cm) — cheapest and easiest. A sward stick is really just a ruler with a conversion table printed on it, so a 30 cm rule off the bench measures the same thing; what the stick adds is the printed table that turns height into kg DM/ha. Beef + Lamb NZ will post you one free — email enquiries@beeflambnz.com or call 0800 233 352 — and theirs is calibrated for New Zealand with a different reading for each of five seasons, which is why we point you at it rather than doing the sums ourselves. Their one-page fact sheet explains it properly.

How to take the reading (B+LNZ's method): measure the average ryegrass height, or the height of the tallest clover leaf. Alternatively lay a flattened hand on the sward and measure where you feel resistance. Take at least six readings spread across the paddock and average them — one reading in one spot will mislead you more than not measuring at all. Which season you read off matters: no seed head and green and leafy is spring; substantial seed head is late spring; dead material and lots of seed head is summer.

You don't have to convert anything. Set "Measure in" to cm and just log heights. The recovery bar and the grazing drawdown both work off ratios, so they run exactly the same in cm as in kg DM/ha. The only thing you give up is the total-kg-DM figure for the paddock.

Rising plate meter — more accurate, converts a compressed-height reading into kg DM/ha using DairyNZ's published seasonal equations. We do that conversion for you.

By eye — free, and it gets genuinely good with practice. Log your estimate, then check it against a measurement now and then to calibrate yourself.

A note on accuracy: the published conversions come from ryegrass-based dairy pasture. On a mixed or older block sward they're an estimate, so the useful signal is the trend on your own place rather than the absolute number.

Where the target numbers come from

The starting ranges we offer come from Beef + Lamb NZ (sheep) and DairyNZ (cattle), and we show you which is which. They're a place to begin, not a rule — published residuals span roughly 800 to 1,700 kg DM/ha depending on stock class and season, so the right number for your block is something your own records will tell you better than we can. Edit them freely.

Hatching

Incubation batches

New batch

Reminders are set for you

Saving a batch adds candling and hatch-day reminders to your farm calendar automatically.

Feed store

Feed purchase

Purchases can also be logged as a farm expense so your money picture stays complete.

New movement

NAIT movement / loss

Reminder: this is your own record. Sending and receiving movements must still be recorded in NAIT within 48 hours of the animals leaving or arriving.

New movement

NLIS movement / loss

Reminder: this is your own record. Movements must still be recorded on the NLIS database within the required timeframe.

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First farm setup

Welcome to My Block Hand

Farm Map

Save paddock boundary

Link to paddock

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