Whey Cool Ranch Whey Cool RanchKid Watch
For breeders, by a breeder

The kidding calendar that lives in your pocket, not on the barn wall.

Kid Watch turns a breeding date into a day-by-day plan for every doe: heat watch, preg check, dry-off, kid watch. One line per doe. Works with no signal. Built and used on a working Grade A dairy goat farm in Hunt County, Texas.

Start a 7-day free trial See how it works

Installs on your phone, tablet, or laptop. One subscription covers all of them.

A doe with three newborn kids under a heat lamp in the kidding barn at Whey Cool Ranch Kidding barn · Whey Cool Ranch
Kid Watch widget view: seven does, each on one line, with days to due date and status
A Nubian kid with a white blaze resting its chin on a fence board
Whey Cool Ranch · Hunt County, Texas
Why this exists

I’m still working on the full herd management suite, but right now I need to know who is due, when, and what the next steps are for each doe in the herd.

Kidding season doesn’t care whether you have signal in the barn or a spare hand for a spreadsheet. Every doe has a date she was bred, and from that date the whole season is already written: when a heat check still matters, when a blood test will actually tell you something, when to dry her off, when to start sleeping with one ear open.

Kid Watch does that math once and keeps it in front of you. Open it in the barn aisle and the doe who needs you today is at the top. That’s the whole idea. It’s the tool I wanted for my own herd, so I built it, and I run my does on it.

Meg, Whey Cool RanchNubian dairy goats · Est. 2023
How it works

One line per doe. Everything you need to know.

Enter a doe once: her name, how she was bred, and the date. Add your specific pre-kidding protocols in Setup. Kid Watch does the rest and sorts the herd so whoever is closest sits on top.

  1. 1
    Days until she mattersCountdown to her due date, next heat, or days fresh, with a mark for confirmed, heat watch, or test due.
  2. 2
    What to do about itPlain-language guidance for today: “Kid watch — she can go”, “Preg check due”, “Open — no action”.
  3. 3
    The date that mattersTarget due date for bred does, next expected heat for open ones, freshening date for does in milk.
  4. 4
    Tap for the full cardEvery expected date if she had more than one exposure, sire, age, tag, kidding history, and a one-tap calendar export.
Kid Watch widget with one doe expanded to show her due window, sire, age, and tag 1 2 3 4
The 150 days

Every doe walks the same arc. Kid Watch tells you where she is on it.

From the day she’s bred, the milestones are already on the calendar. These are the defaults Kid Watch ships with. Change any of them in Setup to match your own protocol.

  1. Day0
    BredSingle date, a date range with the buck, or “last heat” for an open doe.
  2. Day21
    Heat-watch window closesIf she hasn’t cycled back, you’re probably in business.
  3. Day30
    Blood and ultrasound reliableKid Watch flags her “test due” until you mark her confirmed.
  4. Day90
    Fetal growth acceleratesStep up her ration. The stage guide follows the kids’ development.
  5. Day100
    Dry-off window opensFor milkers only. Dry does skip straight ahead.
  6. Day145
    Kid watchDue window opens. Target day 150, late by 155, all shown on the card.

AI’d her, then turned in a cleanup buck? Log both exposures. Each gets its own expected date on her card, and when she kids the record says which breeding took. Nigerian Dwarfs run about five days shorter. Mark a doe as one when you add her and her window moves to days 140–150, target 145; everything else follows. After she kids, log it on her card and Kid Watch closes the pregnancy, starts her days-in-milk count, and watches for the first heat. Losses have a home too: aborted, absorbed, and returned-to-heat are recorded in her history, not lost in a notes field.

Built for the barn

Big numbers, dark screen, no signal required.

It was designed to be read at arm’s length under a heat lamp at five in the morning, and it behaves like it.

  • Installs like an app

    Add it to your home screen on iPhone, Android, or a laptop. It opens full-screen, no browser bar, no app store.

  • Works with no signal

    Your herd loads from the device itself. The barn can be a dead zone and Kid Watch still opens instantly.

  • Your herd stays yours

    Records live on your device. Cloud backup is encrypted and tied to your subscription, so only your devices can read it.

  • Straight into your calendar

    Export one doe’s heat and due-window alarms, or the whole herd’s season, as a calendar file that Google, Apple, and Outlook all open.

  • A backup you can hold

    Download a full herd backup file whenever you like, and restore it on any device from Setup. No lock-in.

  • A history that adds up

    Freshening count, kids per kidding, gestation length, and loss records travel with each doe from season to season.

The screens

Two views. Same herd.

Quick views in the barn aisle, full board for the laptop when you’ve finally found some time to sit down.

Kid Watch board view on a laptop: summary tiles, filters, and three doe cards side by side
Kid Watch board on a phone with a doe card expanded
BoardTiles, filters, and full cards with the due window, stage, sire, and history.
Adding a doe: name, tag, breeding method, and date
Add a doeName, tag, breed gestation, and each exposure with its sire, method, and date. Thirty seconds, big targets, gloves on.
Kid Watch widget view with the herd sorted by urgency
WidgetThe whole herd, sorted so the doe who needs you today is on top.
A doe and her spotted kid in a straw-bedded kidding pen
Kidding pen
Two black-and-white spotted newborn kids curled up in a tub of shavings
First hour
A pile of kids sleeping together under a heat lamp
Under the lamp
A newborn kid standing on wobbly legs
Whey Cool Ranch
Price

One price. Every doe, every device.

No per-head fees, no tiers, no upsell. Try it free for a week with your own herd, and cancel from inside the app any time.

—per year
  • 7-day free trial with your real herd
  • Unlimited does, unlimited devices
  • Offline widget and board, calendar export, downloadable herd backup
  • Encrypted cloud backup for moving to a new phone
  • Cancel any time from Setup. Your backup file goes with you.
Start your free trial

A card is required to start the trial. Nothing is charged until the trial ends, and you can cancel before then.