Drafting lists — plan and carry out cattle decisions

What this page helps you do

Beef → Drafting lists groups cattle you are sorting in the yard for a next action. A list can say Stay, Move, Sell or Slaughter for each animal. Creating or editing the list records a decision only; it does not change the animal’s status. The separate Record exits action creates real farm-exit records for Sell and Slaughter entries. Move uses a separate audited pen-assignment workflow.

This area is for Beef or Mixed farms. An Owner or Manager is required by the service to create, edit, close or record exits. The current page does not hide every management control from other farm roles, so the presence of a button is not proof of authority; the service remains the final check.

Find an existing list

The list page places Open lists before Closed history and shows 20 at a time. Use pagination to see more. Select a row (or its card on a phone) to open it. Its columns are:

Column	Meaning
Status	Open lists can still be worked on, subject to the rules below. Closed lists are historical and cannot be edited.
Name, Purpose	The operator’s title and optional explanation. A dash means no purpose was entered.
Animals	Number of entries in that list, including entries whose disposition is Stay or Move.
Created, Closed	Farm-local display dates. An open list has no closed date.

If there are no lists, use New list. If loading fails, select Retry.

Create a list

Select New list. The form is a single draft that is saved when you press Create list; picking an animal does not save it yet.

Control	What to enter
List name	Required title, 1–200 characters after trimming; for example, a yard or sale date.
Purpose	Optional description, up to 1,000 characters. Explain the sorting objective so someone reading the list later understands it.
Add animals to the list	Search or scan the correct animal tag. Already-selected animals are excluded from the picker. You may also create an empty list and add animals later through Edit.
Disposition on each picked row	Initially Stay. Change it to Move, Sell or Slaughter to record the intended outcome. Review every row; leaving the default Stay is a real decision in the saved list.
Remove row	Deletes a mistaken animal from this unsaved draft. It does not delete the animal from the farm.
Create list / Cancel	Save the list and its current entries, or discard the draft. A success message confirms creation.

The create and edit forms do not currently show a per-animal notes input, even though an existing entry’s notes can appear in the detail view. Put shared context in Purpose instead. Do not assume the list itself schedules transport or records a movement.

Review and edit one list

The detail page shows the name, purpose and dates, plus counts for Stay, Move, Sell and Slaughter. The animal table shows its sequence number, identity, disposition, any saved entry notes, and an Exit record status for Sell/Slaughter rows. Pending means no exit has been recorded from that entry; Recorded shows the date when one was saved. Stay and Move rows have no exit record.

Action	Result
Edit	On an open list, update name, purpose, animal membership or dispositions, then Save changes. Remove a row only to change the plan; it does not remove a farm animal. Once any exit has been recorded from this list, editing is locked to protect that history.
Print	Opens the browser print dialog with a yard-friendly version of the current list. Support read-only sessions cannot print from this page.
Close list	Opens a confirmation. Closing freezes the list as history without moving, selling or slaughtering animals. Use this when the plan is finished or abandoned, but check pending exits and moves first.
Back to lists	Returns to the paginated list page.

Closed lists remain visible for review and cannot be edited or actuated. If an action is refused because the list changed or was closed elsewhere, reopen it and inspect the current state before trying again.

Record actual Sell or Slaughter exits

When an open list has unfinished Sell or Slaughter rows, choose Record exits. The review panel counts pending animals by outcome and shows how many exits were already recorded, so a retry does not duplicate successful ones. Farm exits are hard to undo: confirm the animals, destination and real exit date against yard and transport records before submitting.

Control	What to enter
Exit date	Required farm-local date in yyyy-MM-dd form; defaults to today. Enter the actual date the animals left.
Destination (mart / abattoir, optional)	Optional location or buyer, at most 200 characters.
Notes (optional)	Optional exit context, at most 500 characters.
Record N farm exits	Creates farm exits for unfinished Sell/Slaughter entries only. Stay/Move entries remain on farm. The button is unavailable if there are no such pending entries.

The result reports sold, slaughtered, skipped and failed counts. If some animals fail, read the individual error reasons and correct those records before retrying: successful entry progress is retained and is not submitted again. If every Sell/Slaughter exit succeeds and there are no Move entries, the list closes automatically. If Move entries exist, the list stays open until you complete or consciously waive those planned moves and close it yourself.

For Move, select Move N to a pen in the exit review. That opens the separate animal pen-assignment workflow with those animals selected; the drafting disposition alone does not move them. The completed pen assignment is not currently linked back to the drafting entry, so the list cannot confirm that its Move rows were carried out. Verify the animals’ current pens, then close the list yourself when the yard work is complete. A list containing only Move/Stay entries has no farm exits to record and should be handled through pen assignment or Close list as appropriate.

For cattle leaving the farm outside a drafting list, use the normal animal exit workflow. For deciding which animals may be ready, start at Beef overview; its forecast is only planning evidence.