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How-To: Add and Manage Pens in Performance Beef (Step-by-Step Guide)

Pens are essential to visualizing the structure of your feedlot through Performance Beef. Follow the steps below to begin building and managing your feedlot within our platform.

Note: Similar to your cattle operation, Pens in Performance Beef are the physical location of where cattle are located (ex. Pen 1, North Pen, South Pasture, etc.). Pens should be a one-time add and reused while the groups of cattle are coming in and out of the pens. You should not add a new pen for each new group. Read about the difference between Pens and Group IDs here.

Main Pens PageAdd Pens:

  1. Click on the Pens tab on the left side of your Performance Beef account.
  2. Click the Add Pen button on the right side of the screen.
  3. Enter the pen name into the white box labeled Pen ID.
    1. Remember, Pen IDs are the physical location of where cattle are located and should not be the same as the group. Pen IDs will remain the same, just like they do on your feedlot.   
  4. Enter the building type into the white box labeled Pen Type.

Note: If yardage per pen setting is activated, enter a default pen yardage rate in the white box labeled Default Yardage. Learn more about Yardage per Pen here. 

  5.  Click the red Save button to save the pen to the pen list.


Adding a Pen

 

Manage Pens:

  1. Click on the Pens tab on the left side of your Performance Beef account.
  2. Click the red Manage Pens button. 
    1. To archive a pen, click the - on the far right of the pen. The pen will move to the Archived section. 
    2. To unarchive a pen, click the + on the far right of the pen. The pen will move to the Active section. 
    3. Click and drag the three dots on the left of active items to reorder them. The order they appear here is the order they appear on the Overview tab when in use.
  3. Click the red Save button on the top right corner of the page.

Note: Archiving a pen will remove the Pen ID from any pen list and should only be done when you are no longer using a pen on your operation. Only empty Pens are eligible to be archived.

Adding a pen(s) to your account is essential for tracking any cattle movement or feed. Without this key step, you will not be able to add any lots or groups of cattle to your account. Our platform is unique in the way feed is tracked both by the pen and by the group. This means all feed delivered will be recorded by the pen first, then the feed will be split between each group within the pen based on the headcount. This allows the platform to display specific reports both on a per pen and per group basis.

Pen Capacity Fields:

  1. Navigate to the Pens tab.
  2. Select the desired pen. 
    1. Enter the total head Capacity, Bunk Length and Area.
      1. Adjust the corresponding drop down menu to assign the correct unit of measure.

Note: Desired length and area units can also be selected within Account Settings in the Label Settings section.

Pen Ledger:

  • Select History to see historic pen data for Headcount, Capacity %, Bunk Space, Head Area and Yardage
  • Toggle to Chart to show graphs on Headcount, Bunk Space, Head Area, and Yardage 
    • Adjust the time period to be displayed by selecting from the far right drop down menu

 

Pen 1 ledger view

Pen Ledger

Yardage rates in Pen 1 over the last yearScreenshot 2025-07-31 at 10.21.19 AM

 

Note: Account Settings must be set to Yardage Per Pen to see current and historical yardage rates in the Pen tab. 

 

Actual head count compared to assigned capacity over the last 180 days

Pen Leger Head Count Change

Calculations:

  • Units can be changed to Imperial or Metric units in Account Settings
    • Length: "Imperial (ft, yd)" or "Metric (m)"
    • Area: "Imperial (sqft, sqyd, acres)" or "Metric (sqm, hectare)"
  • Bunk Space
    • Current Bunk Space = Bunk Length ÷ Current Headcount
    • Capacity Bunk Space = Bunk Length ÷ Capacity Headcount
  • Area
    • Current Head Area = Head Area ÷ Current Headcount
    • Capacity Head Area = Head Area ÷ Capacity Headcount

Our Customer Success team is here to help. If you have questions, contact us by calling 515-337-2187 or email us at support@cattlekrush.com. Be sure to take advantage of our complete resource library and how-to videos created to help you succeed.

 

Add and Manage Groups of Cattle - Learn how to accurately enter and manage groups by reading the steps here.

Yardage Per Pen Overview - Learn how yardage per pen works with the help of this article.

Can I archive old pens and groups?