Feed, rations and plans

Why use this guide

Feed pages connect products and ration plans with actual feeding. Use them to organise what each group should receive and to compare the plan with recorded intake and cost.

Find your task

I need to…	Go to
Understand current feeding work	Feed overview
Create a ration	Rations
Assign a ration to a pen	Feed plans
Record what was actually fed	Feeding events
Compare planned and actual feed	Variance
Set up feed catalog and opening stock	Feed setup journey

Feed records the planned and actual feeding work. Inventory → Feed Stock records stock received and available. A feed catalog entry or ration does not by itself create stock or a feeding event.

Set up feed

Start with Manage → Add from library → Products, select Feed if offered and search for the product. Add a curated entry to the farm, or use the custom-product action in Inventory → Products when genuinely absent. From the Feed overview, choose Feed Catalog to review its type and nutrition details; use Edit to correct them. The catalog can also provide Import Stock for stock data; review imported quantities before confirmation. If feed is stock-tracked, use Inventory to receive its actual delivery.

Then open Feed → Rations and create a ration. Enter Name and optional Description, then add each Feed ingredient and its Fresh kg/day amount. The form shows dry-matter percentage and calculated dry-matter kg/day; review those values and the total as-fed, dry-matter and cost summaries before saving. Use the ingredient’s remove action if you added the wrong feed. Edit a ration when the intended recipe changes; this is different from recording what was actually fed. See Feed setup.

Make a plan and record an event

Open Feed → Plans and choose Create Plan. Select a Pen and Ration; the form shows how many animals are currently in the pen and a ration summary. If the pen is missing, use Create new pen from the form, then return to the plan. Set Effective From, optionally Effective To, Feeds per day and instructions. Check the pen’s membership and the ration’s daily quantities before creating the plan. A plan is assigned to a pen, so changing that pen’s membership can change which animals the plan covers.

In Feed → Events or the Feed overview, choose Record Feeding; for several animals use the available batch action. Enter the actual date, target and amount fed. Save, then check the event list and stock effect. Do not use a planned amount as a substitute for what was actually fed.

Review variance and correct records

The Variance page compares planned and recorded feeding. If the difference looks wrong, inspect plan dates, pen membership, units and the underlying events. Use an event’s edit or void action for a mistake; a void may require a reason. After a correction, return to Events and Variance to confirm the revised result. The Feed overview also shows active plans, recent events and reorder prompts that link to stock work.