Pen Edit Window

This window is where you enter information about physical pens at a location. See Core Concepts for more information on pens.

Definition Tab

Pen Information

Pen Name. Enter a name for the pen. It must be unique at a location.
Location. Choose the location this pen belongs to. Once set, this should not change in the future or undesirable side affects may occur!
This pen physically exists. Once used, pens should not be deleted. But if you physically rearrange the layout of your feedlot in a way where this pen no longer exists, you can turn this option off to let Fusion know it can't be used anymore.
Pen Length. Enter the length of the pen. This value is used to calculate pen density throughout Fusion.
Pen Width. Enter the width of the pen. This value is used to calculate pen density throughout Fusion.
Bunk Length. Enter the feed bunk in this pen. This value is used to calculate bunk density throughout Fusion.

If you physically remodel a pen so that's any of its dimensions change, make sure you update these fields to reflect the new dimensions before you move cattle back into the pen.

Note that there is no relationship between the pen and bunk dimension fields in this window and the pen sizing information entered when mapping your yard with GPS except that these dimensions will provide default values for the mapping window the first time a pen is mapped. The dimensions in this window are solely for calculating density values and the ones in the mapping window are solely for drawing the map. Changing dimensions in one place does not automatically change them in the other place.

Pen Options

Warn if more than one lot in this pen. If this field is turned on, Fusion will warn you when you try to move cattle into the pen from one lot when there are already cattle from another lot in the pen. This will happen when creating in cohorts or during regular pen movements.
This pen is a "temporary" pen. Temporary pens are pens like receiving pens, sick pens, chronic pens, etc. and are treated slightly different in some places in Fusion. Turn this option on if this pen is such a pen.

Notes

You can enter a note about this pen if you like.

Bunk Call Graph

When Fusion draws the bunk call graph for a pen, the goal is to show information for the group of animals in the pen for each day they have been in the feedlot, regardless of what pens they may have moved from. To accomplish this, each time animals are moved into an empty pen, Fusion stores some information with that physical pen to remember what pens the animals were in before. It also stores the time periods the animals were in each pen. When a bunk call graph is being created, Fusion simply uses this information to know what physical pen it should draw information from for each day during their history.

Normally all this happens correctly behind the scenes so you don't have to worry about it. But Fusion shows this information in this part of the window and you can change it if you know it is wrong for some reason. We don't recommend this unless you are fixing a mistake which should rarely happen.

Start Date. This date resets automatically each time a pen is fully emptied and then new cattle enter the pen. When Fusion is drawing the bunk call graph, it knows that it should pull history from this pen from this date until the current date. It may also pull history for other pens from before this date, depending on whether the animals where in other pens before this one. If it is necessary to change this date for some reason, click the Change… button and confirm that you really want to do this. You can then enter a new date.

The list is where Fusion remembers what pens (and for what dates) the animals where in before this pen. There cannot be any overlapping date ranges and there cannot be any missing dates. The last date represented in the list should be the day before the Start Date for this pen.

If you need to manually make changes to this history, select a pen and then make changes in the fields below. You can also click the + button to add a pen or select a pen and click the - button to remove a pen.

Pen. Choose the pen the animals were in before the current pen.
Include. Enter the date range of when they were in this pen. Remember, there can't be any overlap with other pens for date ranges.

Movement Rules

If you are moving cattle into an empty pen, Fusion will take the bunk call history of the current pen and add it to the empty pen. If you are moving cattle into a pen with cattle in it, even if there is only one animal in it, the bunk call history from the current pen will not move to the new pen. The new pen will retain it's existing history.

Saving Changes

To save your changes, click the Save button. Other areas of Fusion will be notified of the changes within about 10 seconds (or on the next full sync for trucks). If you have changed your mind, click the Cancel button instead.

Day Summary Tab

The list in this tab shows you information about the pen as it stood at the end of each day. By default, it shows information for days since the pen's start date as defined above. To see a physical pen's entire history, turn the Show All Day Summaries option on. See the Pen Edit Summary List topic for more information about this list.

Getting Here

You can open this window by going to Fusion Core → Pens → New Pen or by creating or editing a pen in the Pens List window.