What is the difference between pens & groups?

The terminology used within Performance Beef is important as it relates to editing and managing data throughout Performance Beef. The difference between pens and groups within Performance Beef is a common question.

Pens 

Similar to your 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. New pens should not be added for each new group unless they are going to a new pen that has not been entered. 

Groups

Groups, or Lots, of cattle are those temporarily on your operation. When new cattle arrive, you will either add a new, unique Group ID or you will add the cattle to an existing group. Here are some other helpful tips to best understand Group IDs:

1. Closeouts (and other performance data) is summarized by Group IDs, not per pen. If you want to compare performance data from one set of cattle to another, like lights versus heavies or steers versus heifers, they must have their own Group ID.
   1. You may have multiple Group IDs in one pen - this will produce multiple closeouts.
   2. You may have a single Group ID in several pens - this will produce one closeout. 
   3. You may combine groups to create one closeout, but you cannot separate one group to produce multiple closeouts. 
2. Group IDs should not be reused, unless you are truly adding cattle into an existing group. We suggest the incoming date be included in Group IDs to make them unique (ex: Fall Calves 2020). 
   1. If a Group ID is reused, the platform re-opens the group and pulls in all the previous data from the original incoming date on reports, even if it was once a closed group. 
   2. We also recommend refraining from naming groups the same as the pen they are in as it creates confusion as groups move to different pens.

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.