Move Animals Action

Watch this video to get a brief overview of the Move Animals action. The text below goes into more detail. Please note that additional functionality has been added to this action since the video was made.

This action is used to move animals to a new location and can be done with any number of animals at the same time. It can also automatically create exposure records.

Starting the Action

This action can be used on both computers and mobile devices. To learn how to start an action, please see Actions.

First select the animals that are being moved. Then you can start this action. It will only be available if at least one animal is selected.

On mobile devices, the Move Animals action is found under the Actions tool bar item.

Action Fields

All of this action's fields are listed below. If any are required to have a value, that is noted. If there is any special information about the field that you need to know for this action, it is also noted. More general information about all of the fields can be found in the Field Descriptions topic.

  • Move.
    • To Location. Required.
    • Move Date. Required. There is no problem using a date in the past to enter historical movements. Herdly will not consider this the current location for the animal unless it is actually the movement with the most recent date.
    • Move Time.
    • Auto move calves with dam. When this checkbox is turned on, Herdly will also move any calves on selected animals, even if they aren't selected. This means that you can just select the mother to move and her calf will automatically move as well. Please see below for how Herdly determines what a calf is in this context.
    • Update exposure information. Determines whether exposure events will be updated as a result of this move. The number of cows that will potentially be affected in this way by this move are expressed as well. This includes cows left in the field bulls are being moved from. Note that exposures can only be updated as the result of a move if it is a current move. If you are entering a move from some previous date, no exposures will be updated. See below for more information on what happens if this field left switched on.
  • CCIA Information. If this field is used, the CCIA move in event that is created will include this information.
    • Vehicle ID. The vehicle ID (license plate) that transported the animals.
  • Note.

When you have finished filling in the fields in this action, use the Save button to save your information. Movement records will be created for each selected animal and the current location information for each will be updated.

If you made a mistake when using this action, you can correct it on a computer by showing the Move History child list and then using the Edit Move action or by deleting the movement. On a mobile device, you can edit or delete it by using the edit button next to the movement in the Animal History action.

If you are set up (in the Ranch Settings window) so that Herdly automatically creates CCIA events, Herdly will attempt to create a move in event for the animal. It will only be successful if you have entered your CCIA account information in the Ranch Settings window, the location has a premise ID associated with it, and the animal has an RFID tag. It also must be the animal's most recent move. In other words, CCIA events are not created for historically entered moves. Finally, a CCIA move in event will not be created if the location the animal is coming from and the new location share the same premise ID.

Auto Moving Calves

When you allow Herdly to automatically move calves with their mothers even if the calves aren't selected, Herdly will figure out what animals may be considered a calf using this criteria:

  • We only look for calves for selected animals that are females and current animals.
  • The calf must be the biological offspring of one of the selected cows and not have a foster dam or be the foster calf of one of the selected cows.
  • The calf must have a birthdate and it must be less than 365 days old.
  • The calf must not be weaned (the wean date must be blank) and must not be a yearling (the yearling weight date must be blank).
  • The calf must be a current animal.
  • If the possible calves for the selected cow have more than one calving year, we only consider the calves with the latest calving year.

Herdly looks at each selected animal and then tries to find calves that meet the above criteria. If it finds any and if they aren't already selected, it adds them to the list of animals to be moved.

Updating Exposures

When updating exposures, Herdly looks at any cows or bulls that are being moved. In this context, an animal is considered a cow only if its status is Current, its gender is Female, it is currently in the breeding pool (based on the Breeding Pool Enter and Exit dates), and its breeding stage is Open or Exposed. An animal is only considered a bull if its status is Current, its gender is Male, it is currently in the breeding pool (based on Breeding Pool Enter and Exit dates), and its breeding stage is Active. All other animals involved in the move will be ignored.

Herdly handles the following five situations, creating or closing exposure records as needed:

  1. Cows being moved may have existing exposure records with bulls in their current location that need to be closed.
  2. Bulls being moved may have existing exposure records with cows in their current location that need to be closed.
  3. Cows and bulls being moved together into the new location may be continuing an existing exposure, if it exists, or a new one may need to be created.
  4. If bulls are being moved into the new location, exposure records will be created for any cows that are already in the new location.
  5. If cows are being moved into the new location, exposure records will be created for any bulls that are already in the new location.

If an exposure record ends up being created for a cow, Herdly ensures the cow's breeding stage is set to Exposed as part of this action.