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- Be aware of the times on feed deliveries and ending feed- If an ending feed is recorded on before a feed delivery on the same day this will cause issues. Some customers have made it a policy to record all ending inventories at a certain, later, time of day to reduce the likelihood of this happening.
- Ending inventories taken before the start of the flock will not calculate variance- Any ending feed recorded before the start of the flock is the result of some other flock's consumption. Therefore, variance will not be calculated for these records. As a rule, we should not expect to see variance calculated until the first ending feed during the life of the flock. It is only at this point that we can determine whether the flock is on schedule, or not.
- Ending Inventories recorded for the future will not calculate variance- The only ending inventory records returned by the feed plan process are those whose dates are less than or equal to the current date and time. Ending inventories recorded on future dates are not considered, and are treated as "bad data". The ending feed form will allow us to enter ending inventories for the future, but their values will all be formatted in red font to signify this.
Calculating the Variance
Variance adjusts consumption to more accurately reflect actual consumption. Variance is recalculated during the Generation process whenever the current date coincides with a flock/house ending inventory record
Total Actual Consumption = Total feed deliveries - Current Ending Inventory
Total Calculated Consumption = The sum of all interval consumption amounts
Variance = (total actual consumption / total calculated consumption) - 1
Adjust the variance if the variance adjusts the % maximum positive adjustment or is less than the % minimum negative adjustment.
From this point until the the next ending inventory, this variance will be used to adjust consumption
Scenarios
Feed Variance Scenario 1
When our deliveries match our ending inventories, we know that we are accurately delivering feed. Dividing 36 by 36 nets result of 1. Subtracting this from one gets us a variance of zero.
Feed Variance Scenario 2
If we are getting higher ending inventories than deliveries, we need to adjust the consumption down. In example "B", you can see that our total deliveries are less than our ending feed. This could mean that there was a surplus of feed in the bin, or that we delivered more than recorded. The software will note the 10% difference and the ration will accurately adjust the value down. Using the cumulative totals will account for any variance we already factored while we were calculating the results.
Feed Variance Scenario 3
In the final example, we can see what happens when the ending amounts are less than delivered. when this happens, the birds are exceeding their standard consumption, and are eating into their feed buffers. We note this and adjust consumption up, to deliver more feed, sooner. In this example, you can also see how using the cumulative values will course-correct itself over time, accounting for the whole life of the flock.
Reviewing / Proofing the Variance
Variance can be reviewed on the feed plan detail, until the "Auto Consumption Adjustments" band.
If an ending feed has deliveries then a variance will be calculated starting on that date and time. We will be able to see the total cumulative ending and delivered, and from there we can proof the variance using the calculations above.
