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Anybody measure how much their cows eat?
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<blockquote data-quote="bigbluegrass" data-source="post: 930541" data-attributes="member: 15537"><p>I don't directly measure how much they eat, but I do make a habit of observing their eating behavior. I rotationally graze with daily moves, so I see my cows at least once a day. When I move them to new forage, I will spend some time watching them eat. I find it kind of therapeutic :lol: Nothing like listening to cows eating IMO. :help: Anyway, I find some will stop eating and lay down while others are still foraging. Now I am just assuming they are all roughly getting the same intake per time of grazing. It is possible some just eat faster. Nothing scientific. I also notice some cows will get up and be the first to eat again. Normally my biggest, fattest cow (#16) is the first one to stop and the last one up - most of the time. She always raises a really nice calf as well. She breeds back well. She maintains good bcs year round on the forage I have. My milking cow, a Jersey, runs with the beef herd. She is normally the first up to eat and the last to stop and often you will see her eating in the middle of the day when the other cows are under a shade tree. The conclusion I came to is that the big, fat beef cow (#16) gets everything she needs in less time and probably consumes less on average than the thinner heavier milking dairy cow. Of course I realize the milk cow is producing more milk and has a higher demand. Not really a fair comparison, but it is the only example I have. A few years ago, I think it was 07 or 08, when we had a really dry year and I had to cull some cows. I used this information along with weaning weights to cull some cows that seemed to always be eating and raised dinky calves. They mostly got culled for raising small calves, one because she was open, but it made for an easy choice when I noticed they were the first up and eating and the last to stop. If I was just culling off weaning weights and for open cows, they would have all been culled anyway. That is how I attempt to measure a cows intake and how I attempt to select for more efficient cows. I wish it was more scientific. I think there are many ways to come to the same conclusion on cow efficiency. :2cents:</p><p></p><p>Like Iso said, if they are all subject to the same environment the hard doers show up and are culled. They show up for a variety of reasons - breeding back, weaning weights, health issues, etc. I think you will cull your less efficient cattle when you cull the ones who aren't making you any money. You just need to be paying attention and willing to get rid of the problem cows.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="bigbluegrass, post: 930541, member: 15537"] I don't directly measure how much they eat, but I do make a habit of observing their eating behavior. I rotationally graze with daily moves, so I see my cows at least once a day. When I move them to new forage, I will spend some time watching them eat. I find it kind of therapeutic :lol: Nothing like listening to cows eating IMO. :help: Anyway, I find some will stop eating and lay down while others are still foraging. Now I am just assuming they are all roughly getting the same intake per time of grazing. It is possible some just eat faster. Nothing scientific. I also notice some cows will get up and be the first to eat again. Normally my biggest, fattest cow (#16) is the first one to stop and the last one up - most of the time. She always raises a really nice calf as well. She breeds back well. She maintains good bcs year round on the forage I have. My milking cow, a Jersey, runs with the beef herd. She is normally the first up to eat and the last to stop and often you will see her eating in the middle of the day when the other cows are under a shade tree. The conclusion I came to is that the big, fat beef cow (#16) gets everything she needs in less time and probably consumes less on average than the thinner heavier milking dairy cow. Of course I realize the milk cow is producing more milk and has a higher demand. Not really a fair comparison, but it is the only example I have. A few years ago, I think it was 07 or 08, when we had a really dry year and I had to cull some cows. I used this information along with weaning weights to cull some cows that seemed to always be eating and raised dinky calves. They mostly got culled for raising small calves, one because she was open, but it made for an easy choice when I noticed they were the first up and eating and the last to stop. If I was just culling off weaning weights and for open cows, they would have all been culled anyway. That is how I attempt to measure a cows intake and how I attempt to select for more efficient cows. I wish it was more scientific. I think there are many ways to come to the same conclusion on cow efficiency. :2cents: Like Iso said, if they are all subject to the same environment the hard doers show up and are culled. They show up for a variety of reasons - breeding back, weaning weights, health issues, etc. I think you will cull your less efficient cattle when you cull the ones who aren't making you any money. You just need to be paying attention and willing to get rid of the problem cows. [/QUOTE]
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