Tru-Test Units and FarmIT 3000 Drafting Groups
The Tru-Test XR3000 and XR5000 weigh heads are extreamly good weigh heads with the ability to control auto drafting, for example on a Prattley 3 Way auto drafter. They can of course draft by weight, weight gain, animal life data values and can even draft on multiple criteria at the same time. For examples EWE's under 50 Kg one way and EWE'S over 50 KG another way and everything else a third way.
In fact the only limitation is your number of pens and type of drafter. It should also be remembered that you do not need an auto drafter in order to use the drafting capabilities of the unit. As long as the unit can identify to you it's a sheep to send left or right, keep or cull!
However how can you select a mixed group of animal to draft out in one go, when the only attribute they share is that they are the one's we want!. This is where the FarmIT DGroup attribute comes in.
The DGroup Attribute
The DGroup attribute is a code for drafting. It is a custom life data field that YOU create on the XR3000 or XR5000. It is number and FarmIT 3000 will assign a value 0 ,1 ,2, 3, 4 etc depending on the number of groups you select in the FarmIT 3000 software. You then use the DGroup attribute to control the drafter, such that when an animal is found with the DGroup value of 2 it goes into the 2 direction. Do not confuse the Dgroup value with 'Draft' or 'Group' attributes used by the XR3000 or XR5000. The 'Draft' attribute records the actual direction the animal was drafted, The 'Group' attribute is used for making groups. Thus the Dgroup attribute is unique to FarmIT 3000 and will only be used by the unit if you configure drafting options to use it.
FarmIT 3000 Management Groups
The first step is to create farmIT 3000 management groups for the animals you want to draft. So lets imaging we want to draft out our selected cull ewes.
Create a Management Group and give it a name, i.e 'cull ewes'
Add the animals to the group in FarmIT. If want to draft out another group (draft another way) make another group. When your happy you have the sheep you want in the groups you want, then open the Tru-Test Control panel.
Loading the Groups
The Drafting Button has the two blue arrows left and right.(sorry we could not pur more ways on the picture)
Clicking the button you will be prompted to select a group of animals. This will become the first group and assigned the number 1 (DGroup = 1).
You will now be prompted to select the next group, If you select a group it will become number 2 (DGroup = 2)
This will continue until you select NO to the next group question.
The upload process will continue....
XR3000
Unfortunateley the upload of life data to the XR3000 wipes the existing life data, so it is important to load all other animals after your group selection.
XR5000
The XR5000 does not get wiped with the upload of life data, so the FarmIT 3000 software will update the DGroup value for all animals on the unit to 0, before setting the new DGroup values. This ensures that we do not get mixed up groups.
What About Duplicate Animals?
If you have an animal in multiple groups, the animal's DGroup value will be set to the FIRST group selected.
Drafting
There is no reason you can not simply use the DGroup value as an identifier for your manual drafting outside, so the Dgroup value can use as many groups as you like. Some users use 7 - 8 groups in order to split ewes for tupping. Or you can use the DGroup value with an auto drafter, either drafting 1,2, and 3 or in ranges 1-2, 2-4, 2-6