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Introduction

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.  


Prerequisites

To override the feed profile at the flock level, we will need:

  • Flocks with placements, estimated or actual.
  • The "Feed Profiles" feature enabled.


Configuration

System → Users → Manage Users → Security

This feature will use the same security as the feed profile screen. If we have access to manage feed profiles, we will have access to manage flock-level feed profile settings.


Feed Management → Feed Profiles

Flocks will still need to have a feed profile assigned to them. We will treat the flock-level profiles as an override to the existing ones (pictured). We'll do this because despite the changes we will need to make for each flock in the middle of their life, it is likely that all flocks will eat similar feed when they are placed, pre-lay, and reaching peak production.

We can create feed profiles for these types of feed with age goals that will transition them, and then add a layer feed as the last profile item that they will eat by default for the remainder of their life,

The flock-level profiles will not be defaulted from a contract, but feed profiles will remain so. This is another good reason to maintain them as the default program for our flocks. 


Live Inventory → Edit Selected → Settings

Feed profiles are still required by the feed plan. They are still configured on the "settings" tab of the flock form.

Live Inventory → Flock Profile

Live Inventory → Flock Feed Profile Context Menu

The new form can be accessed from the "Feed" section of the live inventory menu, or from the flock context menu. Like other feed plan features, it will be hidden if feed plan is disabled.

The top of the form will list the feed profile and additive program for the flock. This is a "flock sensitive" form, so selecting another flock in the Live Inventory List will update the screen.

The buttons on the form are:

  • Save
    • Validate and save our changes.
  • Reload
    • Reload the grid, resetting any changes we have made since it was last saved.

  • Close

    • Closes the form.

  • Delete

    • This is a context menu item that appears over a selected row. This will delete the row from the grid once the form has been saved.  



The columns on the grid are as follows:

  • Effective Date
    • Required
    • This is the date when the profile item will begin overriding the default feed profile. Changes to this field will update the ages. 
  • Age in Days
    • Required
    • This is the age when the profile item will begin overriding the default feed profile. Changes to this field will update the effective date.
  • Age in Weeks
    • Required
    • This is the age when the profile item will begin overriding the default feed profile. Changes to this field will update the effective date.
  • Feed Type
    • Required
    • Setting this will filter the list of formulas to choose.
  • Formula Code
    • Required
    • This is the formula that will be fed to the flock. It is filtered by the feed type, unless it is set first. Then, the list will include all formulas and will set the feed type if it is selected first.
  • Formula Name
    • This is a read only field that displays the name of the selected formula code.
  • Max Delivery Size
    • The maximum amount that can be delivered in one batch.
  • Min Delivery Size
    • The minimum amount that can be delivered in one size.
  • Delivery Units
    • Required, when max and min sizes are set.
    • These are the units of the max and min settings.
  • Feed Buffer
    • The amount to buffer deliveries of this type by.
  • Feed Buffer Units
    • Required, if feed buffer is set.
    • These are the units for the buffer, it includes both weights and spans of time (buffers can also be in times).
  • Comment
    • A comment that we can add to each record. 



Overriding the Feed Plan

The feed plan will continue to use the flock Feed profile until it finds an override from the flock profile. When it does, it will continue to use it indefinitely until another override is found. The feed plan can never go back to using the default profile once an override is found.

The overrides should go into effect as soon as the effective date is reached. There are some things that may delay this, such as the prior planned delivery not hitting a minimum delivery size.

The code to trigger an auto regenerate (if configured on the flock) was added to the flock profile form. Changes made on the form will recalculate the feed plan in the background.  

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