Importing Your Herd

Overview

When you start with Herdy, you do not need to enter your animals one by one. There are two ways to import your existing inventory:

• TVD import (recommended) — Loads your animals directly from the livestock traffic database.
• CSV import — For cases where you have not stored agate.ch credentials or want to import additional data from your own spreadsheet.

TVD import (recommended)

The TVD import is the fastest and most reliable way to bring your herd into Herdy. The data comes directly from the official livestock traffic database and is therefore always up to date.

Requirement

You must have stored your agate.ch credentials in Herdy. If you have not done so yet, set them up first under TVD > Settings (see TVD Settings & Credentials).

Step-by-step guide

1. Navigate to TVD > Import in the main menu.
2. Click Import Herd from TVD.
3. Herdy connects to agate.ch and loads your current animal inventory. This may take a few seconds.
4. You see a preview with three categories:
   • New animals — Animals not yet recorded in Herdy that will be newly created.
   • Updates — Animals that already exist in Herdy but whose data has changed (e.g. breed or date of birth).
   • Unchanged — Animals already in Herdy with no differences.
5. Review the preview. You can select or deselect individual animals if you do not want to import all of them.
6. Click Confirm Import.
7. Herdy creates the selected animals or updates existing entries. You receive a summary of the import.

Tip: Run the TVD import regularly — for example after a purchase or a return from alpine summering. This keeps your inventory in Herdy always in sync with the TVD.

Departed animals are skipped

During import and synchronisation, Herdy automatically recognises animals that according to the TVD have already departed from your farm (e.g. through sale, death, or slaughter). These animals are skipped and not imported. If an animal already recorded in Herdy has departed according to the TVD, its departure date is updated automatically.

Frequently asked questions about the TVD import

Are existing animals overwritten? No. Herdy shows you in the preview exactly which fields would change. You decide whether the update is applied.

What happens to animals I have recorded manually in Herdy? Manually recorded animals are retained. If the ear tag matches, Herdy recognises the animal as already present and shows it under "Updates" or "Unchanged".

Are departure dates synchronised? Yes. If the TVD records a departure date (LeavingDate) for an animal, Herdy adopts this date and updates the animal's status accordingly.

CSV import

If you keep your animals in a spreadsheet (e.g. Excel) or prefer not to use TVD credentials, you can use the CSV import.

Download the template

1. Navigate to TVD > Import.
2. Select the CSV Import tab.
3. Click Download Template. You receive a CSV file with all supported columns.

Preparing the file

Open the template in a spreadsheet application (e.g. Excel, LibreOffice Calc) and fill in the rows with your animal data.

Important:

• The file must be saved as a CSV with semicolon separator (;).
• The Ear Tag and Species columns are required fields.
• Further optional columns: date of birth, breed, sex, dam ear tag, sire ear tag.

Uploading and importing the file

1. Click Upload CSV File and select your prepared file.
2. Herdy checks the file and shows a validation overview:
   • Valid rows — These animals can be imported.
   • Invalid rows — Required fields are missing or there are formatting errors. Herdy shows you the affected rows and the respective error.
3. If necessary, correct invalid rows in your file and upload it again.
4. When everything is correct, click Start Import.

Tip: Start with a small test file (e.g. 5 animals) to familiarise yourself with the format. This avoids errors with larger imports.

Which import is right for me?

Both import methods can be used as often as you like and can also be combined.