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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.
See System Tables to generate the standard tables to be applied.
Farm Configurations
Plants
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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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- Body Weight: Compared against the body weight standard
- Target Age: Compared against the current flock/house age
- Consumption Goal: Compared against the average feed per head of the profile line's feed type the flock has consumed
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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.
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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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- 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 |
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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.
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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 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.