Feed Intake
Feed efficiency is directly tied to profitability. How well do your cattle utilize feed?
WHY COLLECT?
Feed costs are the largest variable cost in production. Individual feed intake records from an automated system can characterize how much feed animals are consuming relative to gain.
Members who have the opportunity to record feed intake data should submit the data to the Association to continue to describe more feed efficient animals.
Residual average daily gain (RADG) is the best indicator for feed efficiency as this value accounts for both feed consumption and weight gain. If you use a GrowSafe System for feed intake, there is the opportunity to have the data submitted directly from Vytelle. Contact the Association for more details.
- Collect between 160 and 480 days of age.
- Test period must be complete by 480 days of age.
- Test must have a pre-conditioning (warm-up) period of 21-28 days for calves to acclimate.
- Minimum test period of 45 days.
- Required feed intake data:
- Start date
- End date
- Start body weight
- End body weight
- Dry matter intake
- Diet should be fed ad libitum and diet composition must be recorded.
- After data is processed by the Association, the returned report will include a Residual Feed Intake (RFI) value.
