A farm does not pause because its owner is away, and a sitter — however willing — cannot absorb years of routine in a ten-minute handover chat. The instruction pack is the difference between a sitter who copes and a sitter who has to guess. Write it once, properly, update it as animals and feeds change, and build it around the day as it actually unfolds on your holding.
The daily round, in order
Open with the rounds in sequence: what is done first, what follows, and what closes the day. For each group of animals, give the feed, the amount in the measures the sitter will actually use — scoops, slices, nets, buckets — and where that feed is stored. Water rounds deserve the same precision: which troughs to check, which taps and hoses serve them, and what to do about a frozen or empty supply. Note timings that genuinely matter, such as the order poultry are shut in or the horse that must be fed before the others because it bullies at the gate. If an animal gets anything extra in its feed, name it and its amount in plain words, with where it is kept.
Animal-by-animal notes
Give every animal or group a short entry: name or description, where it lives, and the three things a stranger would not guess. The goat who can open a standard latch. The mare who must be caught first because the others will not come without her. The barn cat who must not be shut in the feed store. Temperament warnings belong here — anything that kicks, rushes a gate, guards feed, or panics at machinery — written plainly, because a sitter warned is a sitter who stays safe. Also note the animals to watch closely: the one off her feed yesterday, the one due to lamb, the one whose cough you are monitoring, so the sitter's eyes go where yours would.
The holding itself
A sitter needs the farm's geography: which gates must stay shut, which electric fence lines are live and where the energiser switch is, where tools, fuel and the first aid kit live, and anything about machinery that is off limits or temperamental. Water and power cut-offs are worth a line each — if a pipe bursts at dusk, knowing where the stopcock is beats every other fact in the pack.
Emergencies and contacts
Close with a single emergency page: your mobile number and where you will be, a second contact who knows the farm, the vet practice's number including out-of-hours arrangements, and simple instructions for the likeliest crises — an escaped animal, a cast or injured one, a failed water supply, a predator getting into poultry. State what the sitter is authorised to do: call the vet at their judgement, move animals between pens, spend on emergency feed. Authority in writing prevents a sitter hesitating when minutes matter.
A pack this complete should not sit in a kitchen drawer while the sitter is in the yard — KinsLe's Care Pass gives a trusted sitter temporary, clear access to each animal's routine and key details while you are away, which puts the feeding order, the quirks and the emergency contacts in the sitter's pocket on every round.