Dry-off — single and batch recording

What this page helps you do

Dry-off closes an active milking lactation for an eligible animal. Use it to keep the animal’s production and reproductive timeline accurate, especially when applying one date to a group.

Dry-off ends an active milk-producing lactation and moves the animal to the Dry stage. It is one recording action even if the work list shows both Dry-off due and Lactation too long. Use the animal’s Dry off action for one cow, or Lifecycle → Record → Batch Dry-Off for several cows with the same dry-off date. Record the event that happened; a future planning date belongs on the work/calendar side, not in a completed record.

Before opening the form

Confirm the farm, animal and active lactation. Dry-off requires Manage Lifecycle permission and the animal must be in the Breeding Program. The selected dry-off date can be at most 30 farm-local days after today. The server checks the date and the exact active lactation again at save time. A cow already dried off cannot have her new/replacement lactation closed by an old form.

One animal

Control/message	What it means and what to enter
Animal in title	The form is for this animal only. Close it and reopen the right animal if the tag is wrong.
Lactation verified	Shows the active lactation number and days in milk. The form keeps that lactation’s identity and version for the save. Wait for verification before acting.
Dry-Off Date	Required; defaults to farm today or the date supplied by a calendar action. Enter the actual dry-off date. The picker includes date presets.
Expected Calving Date	Normally read-only. The preview first uses a confirmed pregnancy’s expected date; otherwise it shows dry-off date plus the current farm dry-period setting. The server resolves these again when saving.
Edit / Use farm setting	Edit allows a deliberate expected-calving-date override. The edited date is required and must be later than Dry-Off Date. Use farm setting removes the override and returns to the calculated display.
Notes	Optional, maximum 1,000 characters. Explain the reason or context; voice input may append text, which should be reviewed.
Record Dry-Off	Saves the event, provided a current lactation was verified.
Cancel	Leaves without recording.

The form does not offer a separate reason dropdown. It records the canonical dry-off end reason. If a confirmed pregnancy exists, simply recording dry-off late does not move her pregnancy-derived calving estimate; change it explicitly only when you have a new expected date.

If verification or save is uncertain

Verifying the current lactation… means the save button is waiting for current data. Do not assume the page’s earlier list was current.
Retry verification appears if the lactation lookup fails. The form blocks saving until it can verify again.
No active lactation means this animal cannot be dried off by this form. Refresh the source page and check lifecycle/lactation history.
If a network error or server error leaves the result unknown, the form offers Retry unchanged request or Refresh verification. Retry unchanged only when the same facts are still intended. Refresh before changing details; do not open another animal or invent a replacement record.
A stale lactation/version is rejected rather than closing a newer lactation. Refresh verification and review the current animal before another attempt.

After success, check the animal’s Dry stage and lactation history. The matching Dry-off due and Lactation too long work items clear. Other alerts remain.

Several animals

Batch dry-off is for cows sharing Dry-Off Date and Notes. It has no per-animal expected-calving-date override; use the single form when that date needs to be set manually. The batch currently uses dry-off date plus the configured dry period for every successful animal, while the single form can preserve a confirmed-pregnancy estimate. Do not use the batch when an animal’s confirmed expected-calving date must be preserved without review; use the single form and verify the resulting date.

Control/message	What to do
Selection-tray banner	Shows animals supplied by the current selection. Read omitted/skipped counts. One request accepts at most 500 animals.
Dry-Off Date	One required farm-local date for every included animal. Maximum today + 30 days.
Notes	Optional shared text, maximum 1,000 characters. Every successful record receives it.
Add animal	Search a currently milking animal by tag/name when the roster is editable. The form avoids duplicates.
Clear all / Remove	Change only the unsaved roster. A worklist-opened batch may lock it.
Checking / Ready / Not included	The form retrieves each cow’s current active lactation and version. Not included means no active lactation was found; that cow is not sent and its work item remains open.
Retry verification	Recheck current lactations if the lookup failed. Submission remains blocked while the lookup is unavailable.
Dry Off N Animals	Sends only Ready animals. The count beside the button is the count being submitted, not the original selection size.

Results and retry

Each submitted animal is checked again. A cow can fail because she is no longer eligible, her lactation changed, or another rule rejects her, while others succeed. Inspect the success and failure counts and each failure reason. Retry failed returns only submitted failures to the form and re-fetches their lactation versions. Correct the cause before resubmitting. Close acknowledges results to the worklist; it does not silently dry off omitted cows.

For example, select three cows, but the form marks one Not included because she has no active lactation. Dry Off 2 Animals submits the other two only. Afterwards, check their histories and separately investigate the omitted cow. Do not mistake a selected animal for a recorded result.