Are all your animals eating what you feed them?

How confident are you that your animals are getting their fair share? Many producers wonder if they are feeding enough to get any benefit from their animals. With the social structure of the herd some more timid animals may not be able to consume enough to get any benefit. The space each animal has to eat can play a factor. When cows are given 36″ of trough space per cow all were able to eat. But giving them too much space could cause the opposite effect. When individual trough space was increased to 71″ more fighting took place.

Form of supplement is factor

Feeding blocks has been shown to have the highest variability of intake. This is probably due to the overall small size of the block. Despite it’s size there were fewer non-consumers as the block’s protein level was increased. Meal mixes and liquid feeds were shown to have less variability among consumers. Also seems the more supplement is fed the greater the odds all could eat the target amount.

Cows themselves play a factor

The age of the livestock and if they have previous experience with supplements can influence the variability of intake. Experience with supplements plays a bigger role in increasing intake than just their age. All livestock need to have a positive digestive feedback before they will recognize that a feed or plant is beneficial to them. When using a new feed it could take up to 3 weeks before they begin to see it as a desirable feed. Metabolic differences can have an impact on intake as well. We have all seen a cow that simply doesn’t eat as much but does just as well as the one that eats all the time. Both quantity and quality of forage will impact intake variability among your animals. As both quantity and quality increase the intake variability also increased.

What can I do?

First you need to ensure that each animal has enough “bunk” space to eat but not so much that they will start fighting over it. If you have enough space in the pasture try to feed the highly dominant and the highly subordinate animals in different areas. Choose supplements they can eat without too much trouble. IF they have to work too hard to get it they will be less likely to consume it.

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