Barn Camera Software: Foaling, Calving and Lambing Cameras on Your Phone

At foaling, calving or lambing time the job is checking: getting up every couple of hours through the night to walk out to the barn and look. A camera saves most of those trips, as long as you can see it from wherever you are and it tells you when something has changed.

Agent DVR runs on a computer at home and records your barn cameras to its own disk. You watch live or go back through the night from your phone, and an AI assistant such as Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini can look at the cameras for you: ask what happened overnight, or ask it to check every 15 minutes and tell you when the mare is lying down.

Every camera on your phone, for one flat price

An iSpyConnect subscription from $7.95 a month puts live and recorded video from every camera in the iOS and Android apps and in any web browser, sends alerts to your phone as push notifications, and lets you ask the AI assistant from anywhere. There is no per-camera fee, and no port forwarding or static IP address to set up. A subscription also covers business use, which a working farm or livery yard needs. For your own animals at home, Agent DVR is free on your own network, so you can set it up and try it first.

Plans from $7.95/month Try it free at home first

What it looks like

What happened in the calving pen overnight?

Eleven recordings on the calving pen camera between 22:00 and 06:00. Looking at the frames:

22:40 - you checked the pen and topped up the water.
01:15 to 02:30 - the heifer by the gate was up and down several times and kept turning to look at her side.
03:05 - she lay down in the back corner and has stayed there.
04:20 - the other two cows moved to the feeder. Nothing else.

The one by the gate looks like the one to check. Want the live picture?

Things to ask

Is the mare lying down right now?
What happened in the calving pen overnight?
Show me the lambing shed across the night.
Did anything come near the chicken coop last night?
Which of the barn cameras are offline?

Rules to set up by asking

Check the foaling box every 15 minutes tonight and tell me if the mare is lying down.
Tell me if there is a fox near the chicken coop after dark.
Tell me whenever there is a person in the yard between 10pm and 5am.
Email me if the barn camera goes offline this week.

Rules run on your own server with no assistant connected. They need Agent DVR 8.0.7 or later, and questions about what is in the picture need an AI provider set up in Server Settings - AI Settings. More rule examples

Why build it this way

Check from bed, the kitchen or the other side of the country

Live and recorded video from every camera in the mobile apps or a web browser, with nothing to set up on your router.

Ordinary cameras, as many as you need

Any IP, ONVIF or RTSP camera works, so you can buy inexpensive cameras with infrared night vision and add one for every box and pen. There is no per-camera fee.

Ask instead of scrubbing through the night

The assistant sees a whole night of recordings as one sheet of frames and tells you what changed and when, with the pictures.

Recorded on your own computer

Video is kept on your own disk, and recording carries on if the internet connection drops. Keep the footage for as long as you have space.

What you need

A camera

Almost any IP, ONVIF, RTSP or USB camera works, including a spare webcam. You do not need a special bird, pet or doorbell camera. Look yours up in the camera database.

Agent DVR on a computer

Install it on Windows, macOS, Linux, Docker or a Raspberry Pi. It records to your own disk and is free for private use on your own network. Download.

An AI assistant

Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini CLI or any other MCP client and start asking. Free on your own network. From your phone or the cloud it is part of an iSpyConnect subscription from $7.95 a month. How it works.

Good to know: This helps you keep an eye on your animals. It does not replace checking them, or a foaling or calving alarm. An AI model can misread a dark or blocked picture. Each rule that looks at the picture is capped by default at 30 AI calls an hour so it cannot run up your AI bill, and you can ask the assistant for a higher limit. Rules cannot yet notice that something has not happened ("no movement for an hour"). The cameras need to be on the same network as the computer running Agent DVR, so a barn away from the house needs a network cable or a wireless bridge.

Frequently asked questions

Can I watch my barn camera on my phone?

Yes. With an iSpyConnect subscription from $7.95 a month you can watch live and recorded video from every camera in the iOS and Android apps or a web browser, from anywhere, with no port forwarding or static IP address.

What cameras work as a foaling, calving or lambing camera?

Any IP camera that supports ONVIF or RTSP, and most others. Choose one with infrared night vision and a view wide enough to cover the whole box or pen. Look yours up in the camera database.

Can it alert me when a mare is foaling or a cow is calving?

It can tell you when something you describe is visible. Ask it to check the camera every 15 minutes and tell you if the mare is lying down, and you get a notification when the AI answers yes. It does not detect a birth itself and it can miss things, so use it to cut down the trips to the barn, not to replace them.

Does it work in the dark?

Yes, with a camera that has infrared night vision. The picture is black and white, which is fine for seeing whether an animal is standing, lying down or restless.

What does it cost?

Phone access, the mobile apps and push notifications are part of an iSpyConnect subscription from $7.95 a month: one flat price, however many cameras you have. A subscription also covers business use. Agent DVR is free for private use on your own network, so you can try it at home first. The AI provider you use may have its own costs.