Using category for tracking first calf heifers, replacement heifers, stocker calves, etc. separately

CattleMax has three pre-defined animal types (Cow, Bull, and Calf), which are used to determine the information displayed, such as breeding records on cows or sex on calves.

Often, producers will want a further level of classifying animals, such as replacement heifers, stocker calves, herd sire prospects, donor cows, and more. The Category field is designed specifically for this purpose.

You can manage/group these animals together by creating a group based on criteria set for the group. This group will always include cattle that match your selected criteria and always remove any animals that no longer meet the criteria – set it and forget it.

To create a group for Active animals with a category of Replacement Heifers, first thing is to select Categories List from  the Settings icon.

Create the new category (if it isn’t already created).

Now to add the new criteria selected group, go to the Cattle tab and click Add New, then Add New Group.  

Enter the group name, leave everything else as defaulted (the user can add/remove columns in the group listing later), then click/touch ‘Create Group.’

Next, on the Edit Group screen, select your “Replacement Heifers” category and also select “Active” for Status. Now you can click ‘Save Group.’

Your Group has been created. You can access it from the Cattle tab and also select the group as a criterion in Reports.

To add animals to the Replacement Heifers group, you can use the group update feature to change the animal category for each animal.  First, select animals from a group or pasture by placing a check mark next to their ID then click on Update Selected Animals.

Select More Options > Change Categories. Then select how you would like to update the information before clicking continue. 

Select Replacement Heifers from the Categories Drop-Down. Then select change Categories.

The selected animals are added to the Replacement Heifers Group.

If heifer calves are promoted to cows for breeding, the animals will remain in this smart group, since no animal type (calf, cow) was specified, as long as the Category of Replacement Heifers is on the animal record.  To remove an animal from the Group, for instance, after the cow has her first calf, change the category from Replacement Heifer to Brood Cow, for example.