Ruminant groups

Ruminant groups are a suite of components used to hold a number of filters that provide the rules defining a group of individual ruminants upon which an activity or process is performed. These groups allow the user to customise their simulation by selecting particular individuals which to manage and also contain some properties specific to the type of parent where they reside in the simulation tree. The following ruminant groups are available:

The Ruminant group is the most general version of the ruminant groups, only providing a means of selected a proportion of the group to use. It is used to provide any number of filters and sorts to define a selection of individuals.

Multiple instances of this component can be used in certain activities to define various groups upon which to perform a task.

Rather than specify a group, this component allows for the reference to an existing Ruminant group to be used allowing for the sharing of common groups.

The Ruminant death group applies the mortality functionality previous contained in Grow ruminants on the specified individuals. It uses parameters provided by Ruminant parameters grow mortality in the Ruminant type.

The Ruminant death group by rate applies a daily mortality rate to the specified individuals.

The Ruminant death group by condition applies a daily mortality rate based on individuals meeting a cut-off criteria based on various animal condition metrics.

The Ruminant feed group component is placed below a Feed ruminants activity to define the amount fed and the specific individuals to be fed. The group assumes the same amount is fed every month.

The Ruminant feed group (monthly) component is placed below a Feed ruminants activity to define the amount fed and the specific individuals to be fed. The group allows a different amount to be specified each month of the year.

An Animal price group defines a group of individuals with a set sale and purchase price. A range of these components will define the price structure for buying and selling all animals. These components are placed below an Animal pricing component in the resources section.

This component is used to define the individuals being used by multiple activities in the simulation tree and applies to the current (parent) activity or folder and all subsequent activities in the branch. This component can be placed anywhere below the Activities holder in the simulation tree structure and will influence all components (Activities) below it. This allows you to have an Activity folder containing a Ruminant Activity Group where all sub activities will work with the particular group of individuals (breed, paddock, gender etc.). The model will recognise multiple instances of these in the simulation tree above a given activity and combine them to determine the individuals available for the activity.