Water Comes Before Everything Else On The Round
Water is the first check because a farm sitter who finds an empty, frozen or fouled trough at dawn can fix it before any animal spends a thirsty morning waiting. Walk every trough, bucket and automatic drinker in turn. Look for ice that needs breaking, algae or droppings fouling the water, a float valve stuck shut, and a supply pipe dripping or split. Refill and scrub what needs it, and note any drinker that was dry, because a trough empty two mornings running points to a supply fault rather than thirsty stock. Nothing else on the round, feeding included, should jump ahead of drinkable water for every pen and paddock.
Count Heads And Look At Every Animal Standing
A headcount is the second check because a farm sitter counting animals against the number on the handover list spots an escape, a birth or a missing bird before the day moves on. As you count, actually look at each animal. One lying apart from the group, one not coming forward, one limping, coughing, or standing with its head down deserves a closer, calm look from the gate. Check poultry houses for birds that did not roost or did not come down. You are not deciding what is wrong; you are spotting which animal is different from yesterday so the owner hears about it early.
Walk Fences, Gates And Shelter Before Turnout
Boundaries come third because a farm sitter who checks fences before opening gates prevents the classic morning disaster of turning stock straight through a gap. Walk the lines animals will use that day, looking for a strand down, a post leaning, a gate chain undone, or a latch a clever animal has learned to lift. Check shelter too: a collapsed field shelter, a flooded corner of a barn, or bedding soaked through changes where animals should stand today. Damage found at this point is a repair job; the same damage found after turnout is a recovery job involving neighbours' gardens and a road.
Feed Only Once The First Round Is Done
Feeding waits until the checks are finished because hungry animals crowding a sitter at the gate hide exactly the problems the first round exists to find. Once water, numbers and fences are confirmed, feed in the order the owner set out, pen by pen, and watch who actually eats. An animal that turns away from feed it normally takes is information worth passing on. Measure feed from the labelled bins rather than guessing, keep different groups' rations separate, and close every feed store behind you so a loose animal cannot gorge itself later.
Write Down Anything That Was Different
The round ends with notes because a farm sitter's observations only help the owner if they survive beyond the moment of seeing them. Record the drinker that was dry, the ewe that hung back, the gate that needed its chain replaced, in plain words with the time you saw them. Small changes logged daily build the picture that tells an owner whether a problem is growing. KinsLe lets that sitter keep those notes alongside the temporary routine access in Care Pass, so every morning's findings sit with the animals they describe.