An honest comparison
SwineOps vs spreadsheets and paper: an honest comparison
Spreadsheets and paper logbooks are where most operations start, and for good reason — they're cheap, flexible, and everyone knows how to use them. The trouble shows up at scale: data lives in five files, gets entered three times, and tells you what happened weeks after it mattered. SwineOps keeps the flexibility you need but connects everything, so a number is current and an audit isn't a fire drill.
SwineOps is best for
Any operation past the smallest scale that's losing time to re-entry, month-end reconciliation, and stale numbers.
spreadsheets & paper is best for
A single barn, just starting out, where the volume is low enough that a notebook genuinely keeps up and cost matters more than anything.
At a glance
| Feature | SwineOps | spreadsheets & paper |
|---|---|---|
| Up-front cost | Subscription | Near zero |
| Connected data | Yes — entered once | No — re-keyed |
| Real-time KPIs | Yes | No — manual |
| Alerts & routing | Yes — automatic | No |
| Mobile / offline capture | Yes | No (paper) / clumsy |
| Audit trail | Yes — signed records | No |
| Cost per pig | Live | Closeout rebuild |
| TFW compliance | Yes — tracked & alerted | Folder of files |
Where SwineOps is stronger
Entered once, everywhere
A farrowing, a load, or a punch is captured once and flows into KPIs and cost — no triple entry.
The number is current
KPIs and cost per pig update as events are logged, instead of being weeks stale at month-end.
Audits stop being fire drills
Compliance, signatures, and document expiry are tracked, so audit week is a screen, not a scramble.
Where spreadsheets & paper may fit better
The very smallest operations
A single low-volume barn just getting started can genuinely keep up on paper, and the cost is hard to beat.
One-off, ad-hoc analysis
A spreadsheet is still the right tool for a quick one-time calculation that doesn't need to live anywhere.
Switching to SwineOps
There's no migration to schedule — you start entering in SwineOps and stop maintaining the spreadsheets. Most operations import their current sow list and active lots to seed the system, then go live immediately.
See it side by side.
A 20-minute walkthrough on your operation.