I have a Chicken Feed advertisement on FaceBook Marketplace. I got an email from a nice lady who wanted a mix that would provide more energy/warmth for her chickens this winter. She already had a high protein mix with Peas, Barley, and Flax. (My first mix from 20 years ago when we grew flax.)
So I used CoPilot to come up with a better winter mix. What a fiasco. It is a fiasco on two levels.
First of all Artificial Intelligence lies to you. It gets stuff wrong all the time. I put enough info in to my query that I am pretty confident in the mix. I think I will increase the amount of rye and corn and drop the oats and throw in a couple bags of clover seed screenings to boost the feed value. But, it is essentially a good mix.
The problem is trying to balance the ration and to print out a label. CoPilot is not reliable enough to actually make a useful label. I mean, the capability is there but the end result is NEVER what I want.
The other issue is ration formulation. If I could just do a spreadsheet that I could have on my rugged tablet so I could plug in the numbers and get a printout. This is possible in theory. My buddy Mark made me a spreadsheet back when we worked together but it has not held up well after numerous transfers between computers and operating systems and it is very tough to use on my phone.
I need an app that I could plug the values in and it would calculate. It is not that difficult but I am not very smart.
The final and most frustrating issue is that I cannot afford to buy a pellet mill big enough to make these mixes affordable if I actually had to buy the ingredients. I cannot seem to come up with the measly $12,000 to buy the darn thing. Plus, I don't really have the self confidence to just put it on a credit card. Too many things have gone sideways in my life for me to trust a credit card....
Maybe I will just go work on my bathroom...
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| After numerous failed CoPilot labels I just did it longhand. I need to take an Excel class. This would be so simple to make. Or better yet! Filemaker Pro! There is another issue. I need this spreadsheet to work on my iPhone and/or Windows tablet. Typing into a Numbers spreadsheet on an iPhone often results in unwanted edits and the need for magnifiers... |
This looks interesting.
ReplyDelete1) Are you working backwards from the amount of feed/pellets that someone wants? In your example ~1000 pounds
2) Is the cost/lb what you are paying for it or what you are charging the customer?
3) Are there components in the first column ('Item') variable or always
included at some level?
4) Are there components that you might use that are not in this list?
5) Are the protein percentages always the same or do those change with the source of type of the 'Item?'
6) The last section appears to be your labor cost. I'm assuming that the labor is variable (e.g. 1000 pounds would not always be 3.5 hours) and I'm assuming that the '85' is an hourly cost that might vary depending hour annoying or cute the customer might be.
This could be a pretty easy spreadsheet app with Google Sheets which is a spreadsheet functionally equivalent to Excel. The app is free and available on the app store. I'll look at it to divert me from what I should be doing. Obviously you can save and print the spreadsheet. That can be as attractive or utilitarian as you wish.
This is interesting for a couple reasons. I used to do some apps like this and way back I worked with lab rats. To get lab rats trained you starve them back to 75% of what 'average' weight would be and then incentivize them with Purina Rat Chow.
1. I don't work backwards because that was too complicated. I just change amounts to get close to the desired total amount.
ReplyDelete2. I generally use the cost per lb that I am charging customer
3. First column items are variables but in my Numbers spreadsheet I generally just leave them in and enter zero for the amount of lbs
4. I only add products, I thought about calculating other costs like bags or hours/fuel but want to keep it basic.
5. The protein content and cost per pound varies
6. The bottom section was an attempt to calculate production expense. I was going to have a lbs per hour and cost per hour which would then give me price per lb and total price. But, lbs per hour is depressing.
This sheet works nice to show a customer as an estimate. To be legal I am selling you lbs of grain and then processing it for you. Not providing a "balanced ration." In fact, I need to add the text, "Estimated protein content"
The spread sheet I had kept running totals at the bottom and also calculated percent protein and cost per lb of what had been entered. It was very handy until I screwed it up.
I need to put this into Google sheets so I could access it with my phone at any time. And I need to figure out how to lock the calculation cells into a template so that I don't delete them by accident.
As to rats... I am hoping including red peppers in the mix will repel rats and mice!
I think an app would sell. It would need to be visible on a small screen. For example a text dialog box would ask you to input Product, cost per ton, and protein content and target protein percentage. The app would then give you total lbs, total percentage protein in a running total. A huge bonus would be if you could input your high protein ingredient and the then the app would estimate tell the amount the high protein item to meet your protein content goal.