What are Groups?
Groups is a tool in MINDA that helps you manage and sort your animals. Once you've created a few Groups, they can be used when recording events, running reports etc. There are a few different types of Groups in MINDA including:
Rules
Pick Your Own (PYO)
Permanent
Configurable
Split
NAIT (If you have connected NAIT & MINDA)
To read more about the different Groups in MINDA, check out our article Types of Groups.
How can I create a Group?
You can create Groups by:
Using the Add a group button in Groups
Importing a CSV or txt file
Duplicating an existing Group
Copying an existing Group to a PYO
Splitting a Group
Create a PYO using Save As in Reports
For more help, check out our article on Creating Groups.
How do I manage my Groups?
Once you've created Groups, you can search, filter, sort and add categories to make managing Groups easier.
Searching
In Herd Management > Groups, you'll see all the Groups for your herd. To find specific Groups, use the search bar or filters.
Note: You'll need to add Categories to your Groups in order to filter by them.
Favourites
Add Groups that you check & update more often to your favourites. When you click the star beside the Group name, this adds the Group to your favourites list and moves them to the top of the page.
Categories
Categories are used to sort Groups i.e. if you have Groups that are related to health, you can categorise them using the 'Health' Category and then filter to only see these Groups. To add a category to, click below the Group name and select your Category.
Note: To create a custom Category, type it in and press 'Enter' on your keyboard.
Actions
Groups themselves can be exported, printed, duplicated etc. If you click on the Actions button, you'll see a list of what you can do with each Group. Depending on the type of the Group, each of these options will be different.
Duplicate, Copying to PYO & Splitting
These options create new Groups within MINDA. To learn more, check out our article on Creating Groups.
Print Group Checklist
Export a PDF of the Group Checklist which you can then print.
Import/Remove
Add or remove animals from a PYO Group by either going through and selecting an existing Group or importing a file.
Drafting
If you have a Protrack drafting system, you can schedule drafts using Groups. To learn more, check out our article Utilising Groups.
Downloading as CSV & Exporting
Downloading a Group provides you with a CSV file of your Group along with any Attributes that you've added. Exporting is slightly different and provides you with 4 files.
AL1: Birth ID's
AL3: Cow numbers
The last two files were for old programs and can be ignored.
Deleting Groups
You can a delete a Group from within the Group or on the Groups page. Head into the Group (or find the Group on the Groups page) then use the Actions button and select delete.
Important: If you delete a Group, there is no way to reinstate the Group or undo so make sure you're deleting the correct Group.
Renaming Groups
If you need to rename any Groups you've created, head into the Group and select the edit option. Update the name in the next screen and save.
Custom Attributes
Custom Attributes are Attributes you can create and manage from within the Groups page. You can create up to 4 Custom Attributes which can be used in both Groups and reports. To set up Custom Attributes, head into the Groups page and select Edit custom attributes.
Add the name of your Custom Attribute and then click Edit Values to enter in what will show when the Attribute is applied. For example, below there's an Attribute called OAD and the value is Once a Day. When you add this attribute to animals, the Group or Report will show as 'Once a Day' for which ever animals this Attribute is applied to.
To add this this Attribute to animals, click next from the Edit Custom Attributes page and select the animals.