Review, explain and share farm results

What this workflow achieves

Use this workflow when a farm figure must be checked, explained, exported or delivered repeatedly. Farmlync offers three routes to an answer:

Need	Use	Evidence produced
A prepared operational/management analysis	Reports	Defined measures, tables or charts with report-specific scope and export.
A reproducible ad-hoc count, list or aggregation	Herd Queries / FQL	The exact command, notices and bounded result.
A plain-language explanation of authorised records	Ask Farmlync	A concise answer with supporting report/query links where available.

Choose the tool that matches the question. Do not compare figures until farm, dates, population, units, grain and denominator agree.

1. Define the question first

Write down:

• selected organisation and farm;
• exact farm-local period;
• population, for example active cows, all retained animals or animals exited in period;
• measure and unit;
• grouping such as animal, day, pen, breed or lactation; and
• whether the output is for daily work, management review, regulatory evidence or an external recipient.

“How is the farm performing?” is too broad for one verifiable answer. Split it into specific questions such as milk yield in the last 30 days, open health work today, conception over 90 days or feed cost in the selected period.

2. Find a prepared report

Open Reports → Browse all reports.

Use catalogue search (up to 200 characters) with a subject or everyday term. Cards adapt to farm type, subscription and enabled features; a missing card can mean it does not apply or is not entitled.

Each card shows supported capabilities such as Preview, CSV, PDF, XLSX or scheduled email. A star toggles a favourite for this user/farm. Favourites and up to five recently opened reports are browser-local navigation aids, not farm records and not evidence another user reviewed the report.

Open the report and read its own guide. Farmlync reports cover, among other areas:

• animal register, herd inventory/age, movement, trading and wastage;
• breeding, seasonal performance, dry-off and herd reconciliation;
• milk production, quality, lactation value, herd flow and income over feed cost;
• treatment, vaccination, antimicrobial use, medicine records and withdrawal;
• feed consumption, inventory burn rate and profitability; and
• beef growth, carcass and economics.

3. Commit every report filter before interpreting it

On the report page, check:

1. selected farm;
2. From/To dates and whether they are inclusive;
3. farm-local versus observation timestamp meaning;
4. animal status, breed, group, pen, parity or other cohort filters;
5. grain (animal/day/week/month/event);
6. measurement unit and currency;
7. numerator and denominator; and
8. unavailable, excluded, capped or incomplete-data notices.

Read chart axes, legend and aggregation. A monthly bar can be a total, mean, rate or count. A dash/null is not automatically zero. Some reports mix lifetime evidence (for example purchase price) with period costs, or use current catalogue values for historical calculations; read the page’s limitations before comparing periods.

Open drill-down/source rows for an unexpected number. Correct inaccurate data in its owning module—Animals, Health, Milk, Feed, Inventory, Breeding, Lifecycle or Beef—then rerun the report. Never edit a valid source merely to force the expected headline.

4. Export a prepared report

Choose the format offered by that report. Capability badges describe current support; not every report has every format.

Before saving or sending the file:

• confirm its title, farm, period, filters and generated time;
• compare totals/sample rows with the on-screen result;
• understand whether the export contains all matching rows or only a bounded/page-specific result;
• check missing-value and unit/currency representation; and
• use the farm’s approved handling for personal, clinical, commercial and registry information.

An exported report is a snapshot of the source at generation time. Correcting Farmlync later does not rewrite a file already downloaded or emailed.

5. Run a Herd Query (FQL)

Open Livestock → Queries. A report/assistant/source link can open this page with ?q= and run the command automatically. Wait for the result, verify the command shown and read all notices.

Type a command and choose Run or press Ctrl+Enter. Live validation identifies the line, column and syntax problem. Commands can be up to 2,000 characters at the backend boundary.

Use Examples, Query items and fields or Builder. The Builder supports:

Verb	Purpose
LIST	Return selected animal columns with optional sorting/limit.
COUNT	Count matching animals; it takes no item name.
SUM / AVG	Aggregate one numeric animal item.
TREND	Aggregate a period measure by day, week or month.
BREAKDOWN	Group an event metric by a supported dimension and explicit date range.

The text command is authoritative. If advanced text cannot be represented by Builder, heed its warning before replacing it.

Scope and date rules

• FOR filters the cohort; AND binds more tightly than OR, so use parentheses for clarity.
• Multiword values use double quotes; escape an embedded quote by doubling it.
• Use one range form: LAST or FROM … TO …, not both.
• TODAY, TODAY-30 and TODAY+14 use the farm-local day.
• TREND defaults to 12 weekly buckets when no range is given.
• BREAKDOWN requires an explicit range and current event datasets permit at most 36 months.
• Trend maximums depend on bucket: 92 daily, 104 weekly or 60 monthly buckets.
• IN accepts up to 50 values.

Ordinary LIST/COUNT/SUM/AVG defaults to active/living animals. Mentioning status/exit items can lift that scope. Historical TREND/BREAKDOWN does not apply today’s active-only rule, because excluding an animal that later exited would rewrite the past.

BY GROUP can count one animal in several groups; do not add group rows as though they were mutually exclusive. Blank values mean no supporting record, not necessarily zero.

6. Review and use an FQL result

Read disclosures/warnings before the rows:

• LIST returns at most 10,000 rows;
• CSV uses the same 10,000-row ceiling;
• a system-capped result is incomplete and should be narrowed;
• an explicit LIMIT is a deliberate top-N result, not the full population; and
• counts can differ from dashboards/reports when scope or definitions differ.

Select results is available for an uncapped LIST with stable animal IDs. It replaces the current animal-selection tray; it does not add to it. The tray holds at most 500 animals. Inspect the tray before starting a bulk action.

Export CSV exports the last successfully executed result. Editing the command without running it does not change the export. Check the command and result timestamp first.

Save a useful query:

• Just me for a personal definition;
• the whole-farm visibility option when other authorised users should see it; and
• clear name/description explaining dates and purpose.

Saved queries are listed 10 per page. Only their creator can edit/delete them. A whole-farm delete asks for confirmation. Saving/deleting a definition does not change farm data or erase execution evidence. Fixed dates and business meaning do not update automatically—review before each reuse.

7. Ask Farmlync

Open the floating Ask Farmlync panel. It stays beside the Farm Portal while you navigate a cited source.

Control	How to use it
New chat	Starts a separate conversation. Use it when changing subject or farm question.
History	Opens saved conversation titles. Select one to reload it.
Trash icon	Deletes that conversation after the action is submitted; it does not delete farm records.
Auto	Chooses the fastest suitable answer path, including exact direct-data answers where supported.
Analysis	Uses the configured Analysis model for this question; use for genuine comparison/reasoning, not every simple count.
Question box	Up to 4,000 characters. Enter submits; Shift+Enter adds a line.
View source result / report link	Opens the FQL/report evidence while keeping the assistant panel open.
Close	Hides the panel; it does not delete chat history.

Ask one precise question at a time, naming period, cohort and measure. For example: “Which active cows have a pregnancy check due in the next 14 farm days?” is more verifiable than “How is breeding?”

While working, the panel shows activity such as thinking/running data tools. A processing-limit response means the question exceeded configured work limits; narrow it or open the relevant report. An upsell message indicates part of the answer requires a plan feature.

Treat the answer as a summary of authorised recorded evidence:

1. read dates, counts and qualifiers;
2. open every material source link;
3. compare the source command/report filters with the wording;
4. verify an animal-level or regulated decision in the owning record; and
5. ask a targeted follow-up when a term could refer to several figures.

The assistant cannot retrieve an event that was never recorded, prove an external action, resolve contradictory source data or replace veterinary/professional judgement. A fluent answer without a matching source is not sufficient evidence for medicine, withdrawal, registry or financial action.

8. Create a recurring report schedule

When the plan includes Scheduled Exports, open Reports → Scheduled and choose Add schedule.

Control	Accepted value
Report	Breeding Report, Health Report or Milk Production Summary on a dairy farm; these produce PDF.
Frequency	Weekly on Mondays or Monthly on the first. Runs are anchored at 06:00 in the farm timezone.
Email recipient	One valid mailbox, up to 320 characters. Verify carefully because farm data is sent externally.

The first run is the next applicable farm-local cycle. Adding a schedule does not send immediately. Existing Saved Farm Query schedules can appear and generate CSV, but this page cannot currently create them.

9. Read scheduled-run states

Status	Meaning
Queued	Durable work is waiting; no email yet.
Running	A worker is producing/sending the attachment.
Succeeded	Email provider accepted the tracked send; it does not prove the person opened it.
NoData	Run completed but no report content existed for its scope.
Failed	Rendering or delivery failed; inspect History/error.
Cancelled	Removed/paused before delivery, or disabled because scheduled-query authority was lost.

History identifies Scheduled, Manual copy or Retry, queued time, attempt count, error and provider reference.

Use:

• Send a copy to queue one immediate run; success toast means queued, not sent;
• Pause to stop future cycles and cancel a not-yet-delivered scheduled run when claimed;
• Resume to calculate the next boundary without sending missed periods;
• Retry this run only on Failed; it creates a separate Retry row; and
• Remove after confirmation to stop future delivery.

Removing hides the schedule and its retained run history from the current UI. Record necessary external evidence before removal. Frequency/recipient editing is supported by the backend but absent from this page, so changing either currently requires replacement and loses visible access to the old schedule’s history.

Delayed/retried Milk Production calculates its reporting period from actual processing day rather than the original intended slot. Always check the attachment’s printed dates.

10. Verify before sharing or deciding

Use this checklist for every material result:

• Correct organisation and farm are selected.
• Period uses intended farm-local dates.
• Population/status and grouping are explicit.
• Units, currency, numerator and denominator are understood.
• No loading/error/partial/capped notice was ignored.
• Source rows or cited query/report were opened.
• Known missing inputs are disclosed.
• Source corrections were saved and result rerun.
• Export matches on-screen filters and documented row ceiling.
• Recipient is authorised for the farm data.
• Scheduled delivery status is final, not merely queued.
• Assistant claims used for action agree with source records.

For detailed references, see Browse all reports, Report catalogue, Herd Queries, FQL language reference and Scheduled reports.