About Cowboard
The simplest operations tool for beef cattle farms
Cowboard is a desktop tool that handles herd management, breeding, feeding, shipment, nutrition and settlement for beef cattle farms in one place — designed around Korea's real beef cattle feeding standards and on-farm workflows.
Born in the field
Cowboard started in the barn, not at a desk. Our starting point was to move the ledgers farmers keep by hand straight onto the screen. We recruit users from real beef cattle farms and refine every screen by entering data in the barn ourselves.
Standards + farm data
Our beef cattle feeding standards follow RDA, Korea's beef cattle association and NRC recommendations. We don't stop at the standard — we build each farm's own benchmarks from its accumulated BCS, DG, carcass-grade and settlement data.
Offline-first, cloud as backup
Work shouldn't stop when the internet drops. Cowboard is desktop-first and stores all data locally. The cloud is a secondary layer for syncing across PCs, backup and disaster recovery.
Your data is yours
Farm records are the farmer's asset. Cowboard never shares or sells your data. Cloud storage is opt-in, and you can export your entire dataset to Excel at any time.
Simple, for a complex farm
Beef cattle management spans breeding, feeding, nutrition, shipment, inventory and settlement — but the screen must stay simple. Cowboard puts key metrics on one screen and tucks rarely-used features away.
Built with farmers
New features start from user requests. Each quarter we gather feedback, set priorities, and have beta farms review releases before launch. Cowboard is a tool built together with farmers.
Who we are
Cowboard is built by APRI (Asia-Pacific Ruminant Institute). We ran cattle farms for decades before starting the institute. From that experience, Cowboard began as a small resolve to build the features we always wished we had on the farm. Working across both hands-on farming and software development, our institute decided to build Cowboard in 2026 and began releasing it.
We refine the tool using public materials from Korea's RDA, the beef cattle association and the Korea Institute for Animal Products Quality Evaluation, the NRC feeding standards, and operational data from three working beef cattle farms. We also consult PhDs in animal behavior and nutrition to review the accuracy of our nutrition guides.
Though run by a small team, Cowboard aims to be a tool built together with an open beef cattle farming community. Feature requests, guide typos and data errors can be sent directly through the inquiry board on the Cowboard website or by email.
Timeline
Spring 2025
Built the beef cattle nutrition graphs — now the 'Nutrition graphs' feature inside Cowboard.
Fall 2025
Launched the nutrition-graph service.
Early 2026
Built an analog prototype using stickers on a board.
Mar 2026
Developed Cowboard 1.0 from the prototype; ran beta testing.
Apr 2026
Developed and updated Cowboard for the web.
Now (2026)
Calendar-based scheduling (breeding·shipment·treatment plans), multilingual support (KO·EN·ZH), and expanded guide content.
Technology & operations
Desktop app
A Flutter cross-platform app for macOS · Windows · Linux. Local SQLite/JSON storage, offline-first. All data stays on the farm's PC, and cloud backup is an explicit opt-in.
Web platform
Next.js 16 · React 19 · TypeScript · Tailwind CSS · Supabase. Provides licensing, payments, cloud storage and guide content. Even without the desktop app, you can try and use part of Cowboard in the browser.
Data protection
Accounts are managed with Supabase Auth and passwords are hashed. Farm data is stored on the server only if you opt into cloud backup, isolated per farm. You can export your data to Excel/JSON at any time.
Support
We handle inquiries by email and the board during weekday business hours. Urgent cases such as data loss or payment errors are prioritized, with an average response time within 24 hours.
Try it first
You can try Cowboard free on the web. Building a farm board and registering animals is the fastest way to see what we're making.