Industries and use cases
Veterinary and Livestock Services: Reach the Right Pen
Mobile vets and livestock officers can use a UPCS code to find the exact farm gate, pen or watering point instead of a vague village name.
Updated 14 October 2026 · 3 min read
A veterinarian is called to a sick cow and told "come to the farm after the second canal". The road ends, the signal drops, and the farm turns out to be one of several sharing a track. Animal health is often urgent, and each wrong turn costs time that the animal may not have. A UPCS code replaces the description with a precise reference: it takes anyone who opens it to the exact spot that was picked, a 3 m x 3 m square.
The location problem
Rural animal services cover wide areas with few street names. Farms are known by family name or by direction from a landmark. A single holding may have several access points, and the animal may be at a pen far from the main house. Vaccination campaigns and inspections add another layer, since teams need to visit hundreds of holdings in a season and record each one.
Seasonal grazing complicates things further: the herd that was at the village last month is now at a watering point several kilometres out.
How a UPCS code helps
The farmer, the local animal-health assistant or the vet picks the exact spot on the UPCS map once. The code goes with the call record. Whoever comes to treat the animal opens it from the search box or from upcs.io/<code> and is taken to the spot picked, with Get Directions for the route.
Over time the practice builds a list of codes for repeat clients: clinic stop, milking shed, calf pen, watering place.
Working methods
- Farmers: pick the farm gate on a phone and message the code, or read it aloud on a call.
- Clinic or district office: record the code beside the holding ID.
- Campaign teams: build a route list from codes and open each in turn.
- Your own software:
POST /v1/upcs/generatereturns a code for given coordinates, andGET /v1/upcs/lookup/{code}returns the position. Details are in the documentation.
Practical tips
- Choose between the farm gate and the pen: the gate for the vehicle, the pen for a walking team.
- For herds that move, pick the gathering point agreed for the visit.
- Save one code per working location (gate, pen, water point), with a label.
- A short landmark in the notes is a helpful extra for staff new to the area.
UPCS complements your records and the district registers you already keep. Read next about agriculture and farm plots and field service technicians.
Frequently asked questions
Can a code point to a pen or a water point rather than a village?
Yes. Zoom in and pick the exact pen, gate or trough. The code stands for that 3 m x 3 m square.
Do farmers need a smartphone?
A farmer can read the code to you by phone or send it by message, and you open it on your own device.
Can herd locations that move be coded?
You can pick the grazing or gathering point where the animals will be on the day and share that code.