Understanding how animal linking bridges Fusion's overall inventory and individual animal systems is really important. This video explains the details.
Time: 11:47
Understanding animal linking concepts in Fusion is really important. So, let's dive into these concepts first and then we can see how they're applied in day-to-day operations.
When it comes to inventory management, Fusion keeps track of the head count in each pen and lot over time. The head count you see in the Pen list window or the Pen's Lot List window is retrieved from the inventory system. Similarly, the head count for a lot in the Lot Center window or the Lot's Pens list window also comes from the inventory system.
The only way to affect the inventory system is to make use of in cohorts, pen movements, and out cohorts to update the head count. The inventory system drives most calculations on lot closeouts, customer invoices, and other reports. It's important to note that the inventory system doesn't focus on individual animals. It only tracks changes to the overall head count.
On the other hand, Fusion stores information specific to individual animals, including chuteside events and treatments. Within this information, Fusion has a field to store the current pen for each animal, along with fields for home pen and current lot.
It's crucial to understand that the inventory system and the individual animal system are separate entities. If they were fully interconnected in Fusion, every yard would be required to identify and track each individual animal involved in every in cohort, pen movement, and out cohort. While some yards may want this level of tracking, many don't require it and it would hinder certain operations like alley sorting, where knowing the number of animals sorted off is sufficient, without the need or ability to track each specific animal.
To accommodate the diverse needs of different yards, Fusion introduced a system of animal linking. Animal linking is recommended but optional. In simple terms, it allows you to associate individual animals with inventory events like cohorts and pen movements. For instance, if you link animal W123 to a pen movement from pen 14 to pen 18, two things happen. First, the inventory system adjusts the head count in pen 14 and pen 18 to reflect the movement. Second, Fusion updates the current pen field for animal W123 to pen 18 because it was linked. Similar actions occur for other inventory system events.
What if you didn't link W123 in that pen movement? Well, the inventory system would still adjust the head count in pen 14 and pen 18 correctly. However, since the animal wasn't linked, Fusion wouldn't update the current pen field for W123 to pen 18. It would remain as it originally was, perhaps pen 14 or something else entirely. So, the inventory system is accurate, but if you searched the Animals list window for animals currently in pen 18, W123 wouldn't appear.
You might be wondering about the benefits of linking animals. Apart from easily and accurately seeing the head count in pens or lots through both systems, there are several other advantages. For instance, when shipping a pen of cattle, you may want to check if there are any withdrawals. Withdrawal information is stored with individual animals, so if Fusion doesn't know which animals are actually in the pen, it can't provide an accurate report. The same applies to areas like the Morbidity Insights report or any other report where individual animal information intersects with physical pens.
If you prefer to keep the systems unsynchronized, you can choose not to link animals. However, for those who want the added advantage of both systems knowing the whereabouts of individual animals at all times, let's explore how to use the linking system.
Here we are recording a pen movement, transferring all the animals from pen "1" to pen 18. Notice the "Linked Animals" button? Fusion lets us know that no animals are linked to this movement. Clicking that button provides access to all the linking tools available. These tools are designed to be helpful in various contexts.
Let's start with the "Try Auto Linking" option. This is a great choice when you've kept up with linking and are moving all the animals from a pen. If the inventory system and the individual animal system agree on the number of animals in the original pen, Fusion will automatically link those animals for you.
If the auto linking option doesn't work, no worries. We can explore the other tools and see when they come in handy.
"Link By Query" is probably the most flexible tool. It presents a list of individual animals that Fusion believes are in the pen. In this case, we were attempting to move 150 animals, but only 149 are listed. We recall that we recently brought back an animal from the sick pen and forgot to link it. So, let's start by linking the 149 animals. It's easy: we'll select all the listed animals and click "Link Selected" to get them linked up. Fusion will display the number of linked animals below the list.
Now we need to find the missing animal. We have access to the search functionality of the Animals list window, but any search we perform will be limited to the animals Fusion thinks are in the pen. That won't help us here. Instead, we'll remove the "Default Animals" filter and change it to "No Additional Filter." This grants us access to every animal in the system. We recall that the animal brought back from the sick pen had the sick tag "01-0001." So, we'll change the search field to "Lot Sick Tag Equals" and enter the tag number. Two animals appear in the search results. The one we need is in lot L97, so we select it and click the "Link Selected" button. Looking at the information area again, we see that all 150 animals are now linked.
Before we proceed, take note that the gear button provides access to the advanced find window and other tools, while the "Additional Filter" can be used to view different sets of animals. There are also buttons to unlink animals if they were mistakenly linked.
After clicking "Done," we return to the Move Animals window, and now we can see that all 150 animals are properly linked. We could proceed with the move, but before doing so, let's explore the other linking tools that could have been used.
The "Linked Animals" button offers options for viewing which animals are already linked. This is helpful for detecting mistakes or unlinking an animal if needed.
The "Link By Reading RFIDs" option is useful if you have an RFID reader set up. It scans for tags and links any animals it detects. For pen movements and out cohorts, only tags already in the system can be linked. However, for in cohorts, new animals will be created for any scanned tags that aren't recognized. This tool is most effective with UHF scanners.
"Link By Job Batch" can be interesting in certain situations. Fusion lists recent chuteside jobs, and you can select one and click the "Choose Animals From Selected Job" button. This leads to the same window shown when using the "Link By Query" option, but the listed animals will be those involved in the selected job. From there, you can select and link animals as explained earlier.
[REDO-ne] The last option, "Link By File Import," is useful if you have a file containing a list of RFID tags. This may happen when you purchase animals and receive a file. In this case, the file can be used in an In Cohort to automatically create linked animals. Fusion will prompt you to select a file, which should be in CSV or tab-delimited format.
Once you've selected a file, Fusion will display it in this window. The first thing you need to do is let Fusion know which column contains the RFID tags. Just tap on that column and it will turn green. Next, deselect the header row so Fusion doesn't try to match it up. Then, click on the Next button. Now you'll see a list of RFID's and a status column indicating whether Fusion found these animals in the system. If you click on Done, they will be linked. You can also select an RFID and click on the Options For Selected Row button to make changes before finalizing the linking.
When animals are linked to an "in cohort," they will be created when the cohort is saved, along with any known information such as their RFID tag, in-date, and current pen. When animals are linked to a pen movement, their current pen field will be updated. If this option is used, their home pen field will also be updated. When animals are linked to an "out cohort" (including a death), their current and home pen fields are removed, and they are set as non-current animals.
Linking animals might seem daunting at first, but if you're patient and use the tools we've just described, you can get everything linked. Some yards make the effort to get everything linked fairly quickly, while others allow it to happen naturally over a few months. The important thing is to keep the linking up to date once you get started, so it stays manageable.
When you're starting out, besides linking each time you make a pen movement, there are a couple of things you can do to link a lot of animals quickly. These ideas are based on correcting the current pen field in the individual animal system to match the inventory system.
[REDO-ne] If a lot is all in one pen, you can use the Animals list window to search for all the animals belonging to that lot. Then, you can use the Bulk Update window to set the home and current pen for all the animals at once, as shown here. Even if a lot is spread across multiple pens, you can often use an advanced search to find all the animals in a specific pen, depending on how they are separated.
If you've just finished processing or reimplanting a pen, you can select the job batch and ask Fusion to display all the animals in the job. From there, you can again use the Bulk Update window to set the home and current pen for these animals.
Speaking of chuteside jobs, let's explain which systems are affected when a job is finalized. If you use the Relocate subjob to indicate the pen an animal is in, by default, only the individual animal system is affected. In other words, if you relocate an animal to pen 12, Fusion will simply update the animal's current pen value to pen 12 when the job is finalized.
However, there is a job option that, when checked, will analyze all the relocate subjobs in the job and offer to automatically record pen movements in the inventory system as well. If you're linking all the time, you can use this option and it will usually be correct. However, it's important to carefully review the screen to ensure that the movement counts listed actually happened. If you use the relocate subjob to make a correction in the individual animal system, you won't want Fusion to make the same adjustment on the inventory side unless the animal actually changed pens.
Thanks for sticking with us till the end of this video! There's a lot to understand, but once you get the hang of it, linking animals is pretty straightforward. If you ever encounter a disagreement between the inventory system and the individual animal system, now you'll know what to do!
