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Pre-Requisites
- Feed Formulas
- Feed Mills
- Feed Plan Configuration
- Feed Profiles
- Flocks w/Placement - Estimated or Actual
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Overview
The Feed Plan enables farms and feed mills to project consumption requirements based on the goals and objectives of the organization and the actors involved by providing a timetable of future feed delivery requests based on projected consumption requirements. It's results will then be used to create scheduled feed delivery orders, which in turn are used to generate actual deliveries.
| Table of Contents |
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Pre-Requisites
- Feed Formulas
- Feed Mills
- Feed Plan Configuration
- Feed Profiles
- Flocks w/Placement - Estimated or Actual
See also: Additive Programs, Feed Components, Feed Supplement Adjustments, Feed Plan Variances, Feed Deliveries
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The process will use actual body weight records or sample body weights if they're available. Actual body weights will adjust subsequent projected consumption values to more accurately reflect actual values.
Farm Configurations
See System Tables to generate the standard tables to be applied.
Farm Configurations
Plants
Select a default plant for the Feed Mill.
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Ending Inventory by Bin?: Do you want to record your feed delivered by bin otherwise will be recorded by house only.
Feed Lines Tab
If you need to set up line capacities to be considered in feed plans. Feed Lines
Feed Bins Tab
If you want to schedule by bin you must set up your Feed Bins.
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An additive program specifies a list of additives required by the flock and which should be added to the feed plan. Different additives can be required at different ages Additive program can have program lines for different effective dates. The feed plan will use whichever lines are effective for the current day in the flock's life within the processing cycle. See Additive Program
Feed Plan
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Generating a Feed Plan
This process estimates consumption requirements at discrete intervals from the first placement up to the end of the flock's projected life and determines when feed should be ordered, how much feed, of what formula, and what additives to include. The result is a list of feed plan records dated from the beginning to the end of the flock's life. A feed plan is a record that specifies when to make a delivery, what kind of feed, and why it is required. Feed plans are generated for flock/house units. A flock/house is the the set of birds located in a specific house and assigned to a flock.
Ribbon Bar: Live Inventory Options → Select Flock → Feed Plan
The application should automatically calculate the feed plan, but you can select the generate button if no feed plan records exist. Once you review the plan you can select the save button to save those records.
Starting on the first Start Date up to the End Date, the feed plan process performs these steps for each interval
- Interval is the frequency with which the house process is performed during the life of a flock. Currently, the interval is set to one hour
The plan checks If any conditions are met, if they are the process will create a feed plan record. Each of these conditions return their own Order Reason, which will be assigned to the feed plan
Conditions:
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Delivery Schedule
The feed plan feature allows users to generate feed records based on flock consumption and bin availability on houses. One of the greatest shortcomings of this feature is that it lacks some logistical elements. One example of this is delivery times- with the exception of some settings we can set for buffered delivery dates, the software will recommend that feed be delivered outside of the operating hours of the feed mills that produce them, and the farmers that receive them. See Feed Plan Delivery Schedule
Feed Plan
Generating a Feed Plan
This process estimates consumption requirements at discrete intervals from the first placement up to the end of the flock's projected life and determines when feed should be ordered, how much feed, of what formula, and what additives to include. The result is a list of feed plan records dated from the beginning to the end of the flock's life. A feed plan is a record that specifies when to make a delivery, what kind of feed, and why it is required. Feed plans are generated for flock/house units. A flock/house is the the set of birds located in a specific house and assigned to a flock.
Ribbon Bar: Live Inventory Options → Select Flock → Feed Plan
The application should automatically calculate the feed plan, but you can select the generate button if no feed plan records exist. Once you review the plan you can select the save button to save those records.
Starting on the first Start Date up to the End Date, the feed plan process performs these steps for each interval
- Interval is the frequency with which the house process is performed during the life of a flock. Currently, the interval is set to one hour
The plan checks If any conditions are met, if they are the process will create a feed plan record. Each of these conditions return their own Order Reason, which will be assigned to the feed plan
Conditions:
| Withdrawal | If there is an unprocessed profile lines within the withdrawal range, the process should move to it and complete the current cycle |
| Profile Condition | Occurs when the profile line's condition is met:
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| Bin Capacity | Occurs when the flock/house has consumed enough feed to fill a bin |
| Maximum Delivery Size | Occurs if the total of all orders requested for delivery at the same time exceed the maximum delivery size |
| Additive Goal | Occurs if the list of additives change between interval |
| Additive Withdrawal | When an additive's withdrawal days are within range, the process must complete the current request and start a new one without the additive |
The process attempts to optimize delivery times as much as it can. That means that multiple deliveries to different feed bins can be scheduled on the same day. If the house allows mixed feed types, multiple deliveries can be scheduled on the same bin.
For each feed plan record, the process determines which additives were required during its consumption and their total quantity in proportion to their inclusion rate and their active age range. It then creates feed plan additive records for each one.
- House: The house for which the feed plan was created.
- Required Date: The feed plan's unadjusted delivery date. The previous delivery's feed is completely consumed at this date/time.
- Delivery Date: The required date adjusted by the feed buffer to allow for potential delays. For initial deliveries, this is the required date minus the 'Delivery Time Prior to 1st Placement' value from the Feed Schedule Configuration.
- Units: Feed quantity to be delivered
- Unit Of Measure: The unit of measure for the 'Units' value. This is configured as the division's feed delivery weight UOM
- Bin: The bin on which the feed will be delivered
- Delivery Cause: The event that caused the delivery to be completed.
- Consumption Goal Reached
- Additive Goal Reached
- Target Age Reached
- Target Body Weight Reached
- Bin Capacity Reached
- Maximum Delivery Size
- Withdrawal
- Final Order
- Maximum Feed Supply Days
- Additive Withdrawal
- Status: The feed plan's current status.
- Profile Item: The feed profile which was used to calculate consumption requirements for this feed plan record
- Feed Buffer: Feed buffers reduce the risk of shortage in the eventuality of delayed deliveries. The feed buffer value is the remaining feed from the previous delivery still present in bins as of the adjusted delivery date.
- End Interval: The last hour in which this feed plan will be consumed
- Starting Age: The age in days in which the flock will begin consuming the delivery
- Ending Age: The age in days in which the flock will finish consuming the delivery
- Feed Buffer: The bin space in units of weight reserved for the previous delivery's feed buffer.
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- Delete all records belonging to the same house as the selected, but with a greater delivery date
- Generate the feed plan, which will regenerate the missing records
Automatic
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Regeneration
Recalculation by Modifying Feed Plan
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- Flock Form (Add or update a flock).
- Feed Delivery Form.
- Ending Feed Form.
- Flock Transactions
- Placement
- Mortality
- Culls
- Sales / Depopulation
- Transfers Out
- Transaction Estimates
- Placement
- Sales / Kill Schedule
- Transfers Out
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Left Over Feed
A completed flock may have unconsumed feed in its bins at the end of its life, which should be handled and accounted for by farm managers. See Remaining Bin Inventory Left Over Feed.
Approve Initial Feed Plan
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Once this process is complete the user will receive a message on the status bar. If the process fails, the user will be informed via this status bar.
Once the feed plan has been approved, the initial copy of the feed plan can be viewed from a tab that becomes available on the form. This "Approved" tab is a view to the records that were copied as version "0".
This view is read-only. The records cannot be edited. Timestamp information about the Approval will be displayed on that tab.
The approval step is final. There is no way to undo this approval from the user interface. Contact support for assistance on reversing if needed.
Expanding and Collapsing the Views
The options to expand and collapse all additive views is available to both the Feed Plan, and the Approved tab.
Total Feed
The footer is available on both the Feed Plan and Approved tab. The footer is used for including totals. The calculation can handle mixed weight UOMs.
To display the total for feed delivery units, right click on the footer to bring up the context menu and select "Total MT".
Feed Plan (Audit Detail)
The optional audit detail table lists processing information useful for proofing and validating feed plan results. This tab and its contents are optionally accessible through security configuration.
Report Launcher
Users can execute Aeros Live reports directly from the feed plan through its report utility. Normally, users would access a report through the report viewer and either select parameters or use saved parameters. The report utility bypasses this step by executing a report for the current flock.
Default Report Settings
The report utility allows users to access default reports. These are configured through the default report settings form. See more about the Default Reports form.
From the report utility, users can view default reports and double click to execute them. This will start the execution process and put the report in the standard queue
Note, the list of available reports are filtered to the industry type for the selected flock and all reports that don't have an industry type set.
Attachments
Users can upload and download attached files to a feed plan through the attachment management form. From the attachment form, users can browse for files. This will open the file dialog, from which users can select a file.
Once a file is selected, the form will display the file upload section with the file information. Users can also enter an optional comment
Clicking on OK will upload the file. Clicking on the Download button will download the file
Feed Order
The Feed Order is the next step in the workflow after generating the feed plan records. This step allows the user to commit feed plan records. See Feed Orders.
Staged Deliveries
Once a Feed Order has been committed, they will go to the Staged Deliveries form and once Committed there, they will become Feed Deliveries.
Feed Deliveries
Manage feed deliveries in the Aeros LIVE application through the Feed Delivery screen. Navigate to the feed delivery screen by clicking the Live Inventory button on the left navigation menu. See Feed Deliveries.
Ending Inventories
Track the ending feed as bin inventory is taken. This is crucial in calculating accurate consumption for Feed Planning. See Ending Feed.
Feed Plan Variance
Consumption for a flock will be determined by their assigned standards. Despite the most accurate standards, the most up-to-date flock records, and the most attentive plan managers, feed consumption will not reflect what is actually happening in the house. For that reason, we need a way to "course correct" the plan over time. If the flock is not eating enough feed as we had planned, we will need to reduce consumption to allow them to eat any surplus feed and not deliver more. If we are finding that there is less feed left than we had planned the we need to increase consumption for future deliveries to make sure that flocks complete their rations on the planned age, and not before. See Feed Plan Variance for more information.
Feed Plan Fixed Dates
When feed plan is approved, farm managers will plan operations around expected delivery dates. There may be logistical and planning reasons which require the feed mill to commit to the agreed upon dates, one such an example provided is when it snows, and farmers have to plan for plowing services to clear the road for scheduled deliveries. Once something like this has to be coordinated, deliveries optimized by flock performance take a lower priority to showing up at a certain times and dates.
The feed plan fixed date feature will force the regeneration process to lock down specific delivery dates and prioritize creating records with those dates. See Feed Plan Fixed Dates plan has been approved, the initial copy of the feed plan can be viewed from a tab that becomes available on the form. This "Approved" tab is a view to the records that were copied as version "0".
This view is read-only. The records cannot be edited. Timestamp information about the Approval will be displayed on that tab.
The approval step is final. There is no way to undo this approval from the user interface. Contact support for assistance on reversing if needed.
Expanding and Collapsing the Views
The options to expand and collapse all additive views is available to both the Feed Plan, and the Approved tab.
Total Feed
The footer is available on both the Feed Plan and Approved tab. The footer is used for including totals. The calculation can handle mixed weight UOMs.
To display the total for feed delivery units, right click on the footer to bring up the context menu and select "Total MT".
Comments
If you add flock comments to the flock form or house comments to the house the flock is placed in, those comments will show up on the feed plan comments tab. You can add additional Flock comments right on the feed plan that will then show on the flock form. The house comments are read only on the feed plan and will need to be added to the house itself.
Consumption Form
The consumption form allows users to check a flock's daily consumption in order to make informed manual adjustments to the feed plan. This consumption view form mimics the Daily Consumption report.
The feed plan's daily consumption form provides a fast, easy to read, and accessible way to see a flock's consumption life cycle as well as various other daily statistics useful for making decisions.
- It's not necessary to regenerate the feed plan before opening the daily consumption
- The user can move the form to any location not necessarily within the bounds of the Aeros Live main form.
- Users can navigate back and forth between the daily consumption form and the feed plan
- Only one instance of the form can be open at any given time
- If a user selects a different flock while the daily consumption form is open, it will regenerate the schedule for the specified flock
- If the user closes the feed plan form, the Consumption form will automatically close
- The Refresh button will re-execute the feed plan generate process and recalculate the consumption schedule
- The results have sets of fields for metric tons and for kilograms, but the latter are not visible by default. Users can select them through the column chooser.
- Each row represents a day, but it has a a child grid with hourly consumption for the day
Field Name | Description |
Base | |
Consumption Date | The date for which the row's values were calculated. |
House | The house code of the field for which this row applies. |
Population | The flock/house's hen days on the consumption date |
Age | The age in days as of the consumption date |
Feed Type | Consumed formula feed type code |
Consumption/Deliveries/Inventory (NOTE: There are separate sets of these fields for metric tons and kilograms) | |
Feed Consumed | Feed consumed by the flock/house on the consumption date |
Total Feed Consumed | Cumulative feed consumed by the flock/house up to the consumption date |
Feed Delivered | Sum of the net weight of actual feed deliveries made or projected feed plans scheduled for the consumption date |
Total Feed Delivered | Feed Delivered for every day up to the current consumption date |
Line Capacity | The average bin line capacity |
Ending Feed | Recorded ending feed for the current consumption date |
Inventory | The current available inventory as of the end of the consumption date |
Actual Inventory | The actual available inventory as of the consumption date |
Consumed Adjustment % | The percent adjustment added to or subtracted from the projected consumption |
Standards | |
Body Weight | The standard body weight in grams for a single bird |
Body Weight Gain | The day-to-day change in body weight for a single bird |
Barn Temperature (Celsius) | Standard barn temperature in Celsius |
Barn Temperature (Fahrenheit) | Standard barn temperature in Fahrenheit |
Water Intake (Liters) | Standard water intake in liters for the entire house |
Water Intake (Gallons) | Standard water intake in gallons |
Feed Plan (Audit Detail)
The optional audit detail table lists processing information useful for proofing and validating feed plan results. This tab and its contents are optionally accessible through security configuration. You can access by selecting the tools button on the feed plan. You have to regenerate the plan in order to view this form.
Report Launcher
Users can execute Aeros Live reports directly from the feed plan through its report utility. Normally, users would access a report through the report viewer and either select parameters or use saved parameters. The report utility bypasses this step by executing a report for the current flock.
Default Report Settings
The report utility allows users to access default reports. These are configured through the default report settings form. See more about the Default Reports form.
From the report utility, users can view default reports and double click to execute them. This will start the execution process and put the report in the standard queue
Note, the list of available reports are filtered to the industry type for the selected flock and all reports that don't have an industry type set.
Attachments
Users can upload and download attached files to a feed plan through the attachment management form. From the attachment form, users can browse for files. This will open the file dialog, from which users can select a file.
Once a file is selected, the form will display the file upload section with the file information. Users can also enter an optional comment
Clicking on OK will upload the file. Clicking on the Download button will download the file
Feed Order
The Feed Order is the next step in the workflow after generating the feed plan records. This step allows the user to commit feed plan records. See Feed Orders.
Staged Deliveries
Once a Feed Order has been committed, they will go to the Staged Deliveries form and once Committed there, they will become Feed Deliveries.
Feed Deliveries
Manage feed deliveries in the Aeros LIVE application through the Feed Delivery screen. Navigate to the feed delivery screen by clicking the Live Inventory button on the left navigation menu. See Feed Deliveries.
Ending Inventories
Track the ending feed as bin inventory is taken. This is crucial in calculating accurate consumption for Feed Planning. See Ending Feed.
Feed Plan Variance
Consumption for a flock will be determined by their assigned standards. Despite the most accurate standards, the most up-to-date flock records, and the most attentive plan managers, feed consumption will not reflect what is actually happening in the house. For that reason, we need a way to "course correct" the plan over time. If the flock is not eating enough feed as we had planned, we will need to reduce consumption to allow them to eat any surplus feed and not deliver more. If we are finding that there is less feed left than we had planned the we need to increase consumption for future deliveries to make sure that flocks complete their rations on the planned age, and not before. See Feed Plan Variance for more information.
Feed Plan Fixed Dates
When feed plan is approved, farm managers will plan operations around expected delivery dates. There may be logistical and planning reasons which require the feed mill to commit to the agreed upon dates, one such an example provided is when it snows, and farmers have to plan for plowing services to clear the road for scheduled deliveries. Once something like this has to be coordinated, deliveries optimized by flock performance take a lower priority to showing up at a certain times and dates.
The feed plan fixed date feature will force the regeneration process to lock down specific delivery dates and prioritize creating records with those dates. See Feed Plan Fixed Dates for more information.
Feed Profile Feed Type Override (Layer Flocks)
The feed plan requires a feed profile to determine what flocks will be fed at what point in their program. These profiles work well for meat birds, who are placed for a brief time and are fed the same until they hit their market age.
Layer flocks are a bit different, their feed plans can be very reactionary. Nutritionists and flock managers may change the formula at any point in the flock's life as a response to many factors on the flock, such as egg size, shell quality, hen day production, etc. They will keep it or change it in response to many other factors. For this reason, they have asked that we provide them with the means to control what is scheduled to be fed on a flock-by-flock basis.
See Feed Profile Feed Type Override for more information.