Groups allow you to track animals from the same stock class over time, against a target weight.
Animals are typically grouped by age (e.g. born 2018) so that they have the same target weight, but they may also be grouped by other things such as:
Sex
Breed
Source of origin
Owner of animal
Here are some example groups:
2016 born steers
R2 Angus heifers
2017 born steers from Millar
O'Neil's R1 Heifers
Spring 2017 born steers from Smith
2017 born lambs
In the example below, two groups of animals are being grazed together on the farm. The animals are the same age (R1), but they have been divided into two groups in Datamars Livestock - one group for heifers and one group for steers. This means that weight gains for heifers and steers can be tracked separately.
Note: An animal can only belong to a single group at a time, and in most cases will remain in that group throughout its time on your farm.
Managing groups as animals age
The age of animals in a group will change over time. If you have named your group according to age (e.g. R1 steers), then you can either:
Rename the group to match the current age of animals (e.g. change R1 steers to R2 steers, or
Create a new group called R2 steers and move those animals into the new group.
Tip: If you want animals to remain in the same group, try naming them with the year that they were born (e.g 2018 born steers).
Next steps...
Learn how to create a group or how to assign animals to a group