COMMON QUESTIONS FROM RANCHERS LIKE YOU
The questions
we hear most.
Straight answers about the chute, your records, your money, and the things Headgate deliberately does not do.
Early access · Public sign-up is not open yet
How is Headgate different from CattleMax, Ranchr or HerdBoss?
We are not going to tell you those are bad programs. Here is what their own sites say. Ranchr documents offline mode as a paid feature. CattleMax describes itself as cloud-based. HerdBoss covers sheep, goats and dogs as well as cattle.
Headgate is built for cow-calf work, offline at the chute, with the withdrawal date read off the label on the bottle in your hand. That is a note on what those sites say, not a judgment on how any of them works for you.
What if I don't have cell signal at the chute?
Before you leave the house, open the session and tap Load for Offline. That one session rides along on the phone: the animal list, the products and the label doses.
Work the whole set in airplane mode. Chute saves queue up on the phone and go up on their own once you are back in range. Offline chute mode is included in Ranch and Outfit.
Other record screens, preg checking and weaning among them, hold what you typed rather than queueing it. Nothing is lost, and you tap Save once when you have a bar.
Can I import my existing herd records?
Yes, from a CSV, on the Herd Inventory page. Quick Import takes ten columns: tag, tag number, species, breed, category, sex, color, birth date, pasture and notes.
Full Import takes thirty, adding official ID, registration, purchase date and price, lease terms, height, weights, sire, dam and genetics. There is a template to download for each mode.
You get a preview before anything is written. A finished import can be undone, and it keeps back any animal that has picked up a health, breeding, calving or sale record since.
How long does setup take, and how do I get started?
Public sign-up is not open yet. Write to [email protected], say what you run and how many head, and access is arranged from there.
If you have a spreadsheet of your tags, the importer takes it, so the first pass is an afternoon. If you do not have one, write in and we will walk you through it.
Do you integrate with scales and other equipment?
Yes, with the Tru-Test S3. Pair it over Bluetooth and the weight lands in the chute screen once the reading settles. That works in Chrome on Android, Windows and macOS, or in the Headgate iPhone build. The iPhone build carries its own Bluetooth connection, because no iPhone browser has Web Bluetooth.
A weight can also be typed in, or imported from a CSV the S3 exports, and neither of those is tied to a plan. The Bluetooth connection is included in Ranch and Outfit.
There is no tag reader or wand integration yet. Tag, RFID, tattoo and registration numbers are typed, searched or imported as fields. A Bluetooth reader is on the list, and it is not built.
What happens to my data if I cancel?
Your data is yours either way. Settings has a one-click export that gives you every record as a CSV, at any time.
If you ask for your account or your ranch to be deleted, that is completed within 30 days and confirmed by email. Take an export first, because deletion cannot be undone.
What is Headgate, and who is it for?
Headgate is ranch record-keeping software for cow-calf outfits. It holds animals, health and treatment records, calving, weights, pastures, inventory, money and reports in one place.
It was built at the chute on a working ranch, and the rule for every feature is that it has to work there first.
What size operation does it fit?
The published plans run from 50 head on Homestead, to 300 on Ranch, to 1,500 on Outfit.
If you run more than 1,500 head, or more than one place, write to [email protected]. We work it out with you rather than off a fourth price card.
Do I need a computer, or does a phone work?
Either. The same screens run in a browser on a computer and on a phone.
Most of the day-to-day work, the chute screen above all, is built for a phone first.
Is there a free trial, and what does it cost?
Public sign-up is not open yet, so there is nothing to buy on this site. When it opens, the plan is three yearly plans at $144, $348 and $708, with a 30-day trial and no card asked for.
Monthly billing is planned at 20% over the yearly rate. Write to [email protected] to ask where that stands.
Is there an iPhone app in the App Store?
Not yet, and we would rather say so plainly. There is a real iPhone build, working and in use, but it is on TestFlight for testing.
Most people add Headgate to the Home Screen from Safari instead. That gives you a full-screen app that works offline, with no App Store account. Write to [email protected] if you want on the TestFlight test.
Is there an Android app?
No native Android app. Headgate installs to the Home Screen from Chrome on Android and runs full screen from there.
On an iPhone or iPad, only Safari can install it. Bluetooth scale support on Android needs Chrome specifically.
What is the difference between the web app and installing it?
Installing it gives you a shortcut that opens full screen with no browser address bar. It is also what lets the offline chute mode work properly.
It is the same app and the same records either way. Nothing is a separate download.
What can I do with Siri?
On the iPhone build there are ten Siri shortcuts: log, treated, calved, undo, about, ask, good morning, heat, note and what's due.
Log, treated and calved are read back to you in full, and nothing is saved until you say yes. A treatment read-back names the product, the dose off the label and the date the withdrawal clears. Heat and note are single facts, so they are written as you say them.
Say “Headgate undo” within a day to take back the last thing you confirmed by voice. Deleting a record and recording a death are never done by voice.
Is my data mine?
Yes. The terms say animal records, health history, financial records, photos and every other record entered belong to the ranch that entered them.
The software exists to store that data and present it back, not to claim ownership of it.
Who can see my ranch's records?
Only the people you have invited, at the role you gave them. Each ranch has its own separate database, so no ranch can see another ranch's records.
Headgate does not sell ranch data, does not trade it, and does not use it to advertise anything.
Where is my data stored, and is it backed up?
Each ranch's records live in their own database on the operator's server.
Backups are taken before every upgrade and every night. The nightly copy is encrypted on the server before it goes anywhere, then stored off-site with Cloudflare R2. Only the operator holds the key that opens it.
What does the AI assistant do?
It answers questions about your herd. It can also read a photographed receipt or a sale-barn settlement stub, so the expense or sale form fills itself in. You check it and confirm rather than typing it out.
On the iPhone build, two of the ten Siri phrases route through it. The assistant is part of Outfit, none of the record screens need it, and a ranch can switch it off entirely.
Which AI provider do you use, and is my data used to train it?
You pick Google (Gemini) or Anthropic (Claude) under Settings, or you pick Off. Headgate does not run a model of its own.
Nothing goes to a provider unless you turn a feature on and use it. When you do, your question and the records it needs go to the provider you chose, and nowhere else.
Whether that provider trains on what is sent is set by the provider's own terms for the key in use. That is not Headgate's call, so read them. Google's free Gemini tier has different terms from a paid key.
Where do the cattle prices come from?
From USDA Market News and from National Beef Wire barn reports, with a national index Headgate works out from the USDA figures. You choose the source or leave it on automatic.
Market prices are off until you switch them on. When they are on, a request for a named report goes out to those sources. Your ranch's mailing ZIP goes to a map service, to work out which barn is nearest. Neither request says who is asking or what you own.
What does Headgate do with money?
It tracks what you spent on purchases and expenses, and what you took in on sales. It also tracks who still owes whom, and what each animal has cost you and returned.
A sale can carry the real sale-barn settlement, with the commission and the other deductions broken out. Everything comes out as a CSV.
What doesn't Headgate do?
It is a ranch management app, not accounting software. There are no bank feeds, no payroll and no invoicing.
The money tools cover everyday ranch spending, cattle costs and a clean handoff to an accountant. They are not there to replace a bookkeeping system.
Can my accountant use this at tax time?
Yes. An Owner or a Bookkeeper can download a Schedule F export ZIP for a whole year: every transaction, the category totals, the Schedule F income and expense split, and your receipt photos.
It carries a review note of what is still thin, including records with no category and expenses over $500 with no receipt. It says in writing that it is not tax advice.
Can I give my hired help logins without them seeing the money?
Yes. There are four roles: Owner, Bookkeeper, Hand and Viewer. Money figures, purchase and sale prices, and cost and return numbers are visible to Owners and Bookkeepers only.
A Hand works the herd and health screens and never sees a dollar figure. A Viewer can read those screens and tick off tasks, but cannot record anything.
What if I run more than one ranch?
Today each ranch is its own account, with its own database and its own login.
If you run two places, write to [email protected] and we work it out with you.
How do I get help or ask a question?
Write to [email protected]. That is the address for access requests, pricing questions, TestFlight access and anything else about the product.
It is read by the person who writes the software, not a ticket queue.