Keeping track of your different harvests, yields, purchases, and deliveries can be extremely important to your farm inventory. Perishable items expire, so you'll want to be sure that you use the ones you've had for the longest time before accessing any recent additions. You might hear this as "FIFO", or a "First In, First Out" process. This can make sure you use the oldest feed first when feeding your animals, or pick the produce from last week's harvest before packaging from a more recent one.
Farmbrite helps you do this by optionally tracking your inventory in lots. Enabling this option creates an additional level of inventory tracking. Beyond the warehouses and bins that you define to store your items, lots let you track subsets of the item that expire on different dates. Perhaps these are from different crop harvests, animal yields, or even from different deliveries and supply runs. This selection is available on an individual item basis, so you can choose which items need this extra layer of tracking, and which don't.
To enable this option on an item, check the box to Track Individual Inventory lots and then save your inventory item. You'll see a new option added to the left menu for lots. When adding inventory, you'll also see the ability to supply a lot number.
If you would like to track the expiration date on your lots, edit the item again and you'll see a new field for "Expire After". Since each Lot will have a different expiration date, this is based on the number of days from when it was added.
Adding Inventory to Lots
Now that your item is being tracked in lots, when you add inventory you'll be able to supply a Lot number, or one will be automatically generated for you. Our example below we are adding 500lbs of chicken feed that was recently delivered. We want to track it separately from any other feed we add, so you'll see a new lot number automatically generated. The format is "YYDD - Addition Number". So in this example the lot is 2549-1, which represents the year (25), the day of the year (49th day of the year, February 18th) and the addition (the first one we added today). You'll also see the expiration date automatically calculated for the lot.
Harvesting Crops to Lots
When you harvest a planting you'll have the opportunity to add the yield to your inventory. If the item you select is tracked in lots, the system will automatically create a new lot for each harvest record. In our example below, we create 2 harvests for our peppers representing different grades and ripeness. We're tracking them separately, and you'll see the two different lots created. Note the separate harvest numbers ( 1 and 2) in the two different lots; these represent the different harvests that occurred on the same day (2549).
Animal Yields to Lots
You'll find that the process for adding animal yields to lots is nearly identical to the one outlined above for crops. When you yield from an animal you'll have the opportunity to add the yield to your inventory. This might be something like eggs, milk, or wool, or could be the yield after butchering the animal. If the item you select is tracked in lots, the system will automatically create a new lot for each harvest record. In our example below, we harvested eggs from our chickens this morning. Note the sequence of lot numbers over the past few days of egg collection as well.
Using Inventory from Lots
When you use inventory for treatments, inputs, feedings, and equipment services, Farmbrite will always practice First In, First Out (FIFO) when removing your inventory from lots. In our livestock feeding example below, see that Lot 251-1 was added in January and expires in June, so the feed is taken from that lot before accessing and using the feed in 2549-1.
Picking Orders from Lots
While you will likely use a similar FIFO procedure when picking inventory to fulfil your market orders, Farmbrite does give you a choice for what lot you'd like to pick the inventory from. Below you'll see an example of us selling the peppers and eggs from the two earlier examples. We fill the egg order from the two oldest lots, and the pick the correct lot based on grade/quality for our peppers.
Reach out to us if you have any questions about working with lots!