One of the main reasons for grouping animal together is so that you can save time on group actions. You'll likely feed the group together, apply treatments to all of them, give them all inputs, and move them to a different grazing location as a group as well. You can create records for these actions for the group, which also creates unique records on each animal's record (for Smart and Basic groups). These treatments, inputs, and feedings can distribute the cost amongst the group members per head or individually as well, so you can easily keep track of how much the group used, what it cost you, and still account for unique extra feedings or treatments for individuals as well.
To get started, select one of your Livestock Groups. You'll see the group members on the main dashboard, and a secondary menu of options on the left. This menu includes the following actions you can record for the group.
Tasks - Create follow up tasks for the group overall ( 1 task on your list), or for each animal ( a task on your list for each animal individually).
- Tip: Did you know you can set up Task Templates for commonly recurring tasks?
Treatments - Apply treatments like branding, deworming, medications and vaccines, and more to the group as a whole. You'll be able to select if the amount you apply is calculated per head or distributed amongst the group members equally. This can use your inventory items as well to subtract from what you have in warehouses and keep your quantity counts accurate. A cost can also be recorded, which will add an expense transaction to your Accounting Dashboard. The cost is a split transaction, dividing the cost between the animals in the group.
- Tip: If you mistakenly apply a treatment to a group, you can delete it from the group's treatment tab. This will remove it from any individual animal records. If you used inventory for it, the inventory will be credited back to the warehouse it came from. Any calendar reminders for withdrawal dates, and upcoming tasks for retreatments will be deleted. Any accounting transactions associated with the cost of the treatment will also be deleted as well.
Feedings - Feed your animals all at once, with the similar selections and options as treatments above. You can even distribute the amount fed by the weight of the animal and it's percentage within the group. You can learn more about the details of Group feedings in this article.
- Tip: Like Treatments, you can delete the group feedings if you mistakenly feed the incorrect amount or distribute it incorrectly.
Inputs - If you give your animals something beyond food or a treatment, you'll likely record it as an Input. This could be things like bedding, fencing, enrichment toys, and more.
Grazing - You can move groups to different grazing locations from this tab. You'll also see a history of past moves here as well, and a map for their current location.