Grow-Out Groups & Allocations
A grow-out group is a name for a batch you are raising together — "Growout A", the run of cages by the door — with a start date, an optional cage number, and a link to the litter it came from. Its job is to be something you can allocate feed to, so a week's pellets goes to the batch in one entry instead of being split across eight kits by hand.
Create a grow-out group
- Web App
- Mobile App
Grow-out groups live under Dashboard → Analytics → Feed. Create one from there.
Open Feed and create a grow-out group. This works offline.
A group holds:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | The only required field |
| Linked litter | Optional, but see the caution below |
| Cage number | Where the batch is |
| Started on | When the grow-out began |
| Ended on | Left empty while the group is running |
| Notes | Anything else |
How animals are associated
This is the part worth understanding before you plan around it, because it is simpler than it looks.
A group has no per-animal roster. You do not add rabbits to a grow-out group one at a time, and there is no members list to manage. The association is the linked litter — the group stands for "the animals from this litter that we are growing out", plus the cage number telling you where they are.
In practice that suits how meat batches actually work: a group is usually one litter's worth of kits moved to a grow-out cage together. If your batch mixes two litters, you can either run two groups or allocate to the litters directly.
Feed allocated to a group is attributed to the group's litter when gain is calculated. A group with no litter linked still records feed and cost, but contributes no gain — so its FCR is blank, and not because the animals did badly. Link the litter when you create the group.
Allocate feed to the group
Once the group exists it becomes a target in the feed allocation form, alongside individual rabbits and litters. Record the pounds, the period, and the cost, and the batch's feed is accounted for in one entry. See Feed Tracking.
Allocating to the group rather than to each animal is the whole point of having one — it is the difference between an entry a week and an entry a week per rabbit.
Track group performance
Group feed feeds into the Feed & FCR dashboard through the linked litter, where it becomes total feed, total cost, cost per pound, and conversion for the period you are looking at.
The gain side comes from weights, so a group's numbers are only as good as how often the batch is weighed. Two weigh-ins inside the window is the minimum for any conversion figure at all, and a weigh-in at the start and one near processing is the least you want. Weighing a whole grow-out cage is the job Barn Scan and bulk weight entry exist for — see Weights & ADG.
Closing a group
Set the ended on date when the batch is finished — processed, sold, or moved into the herd. The group and its history stay; the date simply marks that it is no longer running.
Ending a group does not touch the animals or the feed already allocated to it, and it does not remove anything from your analytics. Past periods still report exactly as they did.