Watch this video to see how to create the list of pens that are in your yard.
Time: 4:07
Let's delve into creating pens in Fusion. This involves defining the physical pens within your feedlot where you'll eventually place cattle. Start with the Fusion Core menu bar active and select "New Pen" from the Pens menu.
Pens need to have unique names within a location. Let's set up a sick pen, and we'll name it "Sick Pen". Keep in mind that once created, pens can't be moved to another location, so ensure you enter the correct location. Also, leave the "This pen physically exists" checkbox checked. If you were to remodel your yard in the future, and this pen no longer exists, you would uncheck this field so that it no longer appears as a place to house cattle while preserving historical data.
You aren't obligated to input the pen dimensions, but they become necessary if you want Fusion to calculate pen and bunk density on various reports. Make sure you take note of the dimension units for each field because they are not all the same!
Let's focus on the Pen Options area. The first option is handy for pens primarily meant to house a single lot. If checked and you try to move cattle from a second lot into it, Fusion will issue a warning to prevent mistakes. Since this is a sick pen, we'll leave it unchecked.
However, we should activate the second option for this sick pen. This informs Fusion that this isn't a typical home pen for cattle. Fusion uses this information to make smarter decisions in certain scenarios. Sick pens, chronic pens, and holding pens should all have this option turned on.
That's all we need to do to create a pen. The Bunk Call Graph area is automatically managed by Fusion and doesn't come into play until cattle have been placed in the pen, so you can ignore it. Click "Save" to create the pen.
If you're new to using Fusion and want a quicker way to create pens, you can utilize the Pen Creation Assistant. To access this tool, select the Physical Pens section in the Fusion Setup Assistant.
The Pen Creation Assistant is straightforward and designed to create numbered pens in a sequence. Let's say we want to create pens numbered 1 to 10, all with the same dimensions. In the First Number field, enter "1," in the Last Number field, enter "10," and provide the common dimensions. If you expect these pens to mainly house a single lot, check off that option. Additionally, let's say we want each pen name to start with an "A." You can set that up using the Prepend field. After confirming that you're creating pens for the correct location, simply click the "Auto Create Pens" button. Fusion will show you what the pen labels will look like, and if you confirm, it will create the pens. You can repeat this process for other pen sequences in your yard.
There are two more steps to complete after defining the pens. Fusion separately manages the display order and the drive order of your pens at each location. The display order determines how Fusion sorts your pens for reports and office use. The drive order represents the natural order that your feed truck would encounter each pen if it passed by all of them. It's used for displaying pens in the truck and plays a role in the algorithm for suggesting the next ration to feed.
You can change the order from the Fusion Setup Assistant window by clicking the "Change Order" button. You can also do it from the Pen List window. For example, let's adjust the drive order for the new pens we just created. As you can see, all it takes is dragging the pens to rearrange them. Once you're done, click "Save."
Don't forget to adjust the display order as well! If you need assistance, consult the documentation or reach out to our support team.
