Access Feed Program

Feed programs are built to suit the animals' life cycle stages. Each heifer and cow in the herd is associated with a lactation segment within the life cycle, and receives the Daily Allowance calculated according to the Feed Type Menu assigned to this segment.

This section describes the sequence of defining life cycle stages with segments for the Feed Program and assigning feed attributes to each segment.

Once the entire sequence is established, it is the only Feed Program for the entire herd.

To define life cycle stages and segments:

In AfiFarm, in the Folders List pane, expand the Individual Feed folder, then click Feed Program.

The Feed Program window opens, with the Heifer tab open (default).
Navigate between the Heifer and Cow tabs to view and tailor lactation segments within the animals' life cycles.

Title	Description
Heifer and Cow tabs	Feed Program window provides 3 main life cycle views: Heifers, First Lactation Program, and Second Lactation or above. These tabs are further divided to General and Pregnant. Heifers are generally fed to encourage growth, while cows are fed to encourage production. AfiFeed allows you to implement feeding strategies to suit these different stages. Note: Pregnant cows are automatically transferred from the production (days in milk) program to pregnant feed program when a pregnancy event is entered.
Lactation Interval graph	The graphs display an illustration of each life cycle stage according to the corresponding segment. General lactation interval graphs begin at the Fresh Cow stage and show the lactation cycles per DIM. Pregnant lactation interval graphs begin at Before PD (which cannot be assigned/enabled) and display Periods 1 and 2 plus the Dry and Close-up segments in Days. The Lactation Interval Graph includes: Lactation segments - are divided by vertical solid or dashed lines. Typical milking curve – static (yellow) shading indicates a typical milking curve along the Lactation Cycle. Feed line - black line represents the planned milking curve of an average cow for each of the sections.
Feed Menu Option	Tailor different menu types and their distribution using the feed menus, to suit animals' changing nutritional needs, according to each segment in the fertility-lactation cycle.

Title

Description

Heifer and Cow tabs

Feed Program window provides 3 main life cycle views: Heifers, First Lactation Program, and Second Lactation or above. These tabs are further divided to General and Pregnant.

Heifers are generally fed to encourage growth, while cows are fed to encourage production. AfiFeed allows you to implement feeding strategies to suit these different stages.

Note: Pregnant cows are automatically transferred from the production (days in milk) program to pregnant feed program when a pregnancy event is entered.

Lactation Interval graph

The graphs display an illustration of each life cycle stage according to the corresponding segment.

General lactation interval graphs begin at the Fresh Cow stage and show the lactation cycles per DIM.
Pregnant lactation interval graphs begin at Before PD (which cannot be assigned/enabled) and display Periods 1 and 2 plus the Dry and Close-up segments in Days.

The Lactation Interval Graph includes:

Lactation segments - are divided by vertical solid or dashed lines.
Typical milking curve – static (yellow) shading indicates a typical milking curve along the Lactation Cycle.
Feed line - black line represents the planned milking curve of an average cow for each of the sections.

Feed Menu Option

Tailor different menu types and their distribution using the feed menus, to suit animals' changing nutritional needs, according to each segment in the fertility-lactation cycle.