How to Measure Pasture-Feed Intake for Cattle
The beef industry has been focused on measuring economically relevant traits for decades. However, some of these traits are harder to measure than others. One of these traits includes pasture-based forage intake on an individual animal basis. With feed costs being one of the highest inputs cattle producers have each year and forage being a limiting resource, the ability to measure this trait is more important than ever before. Cattle producers can now measure forage intake on a per-head basis in their pastures with the implementation of Ceres Tag devices.
David Smith, Dr. Troy Rowan and Barbara Jackson share valuable insights about how Ceres Tag devices measure pasture feed intake and how it can be applied in real-world settings during Season 7, Episode 10 of the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast.
Traditional methods of teaching forage management and utilization have largely been based on assuming that what cattle consume is based on their weight and excludes the genetic component. When calculating stocking rates, the standard animal unit is the equivalent of a 1,000-pound animal. Research and new technology challenge this methodology to make it more accurate. “What Ceres Tag and having an algorithm that predicts that forage-based feed intake allows you to do is look at some of those cows that are outliers. They are either eating more or less than what we would expect based on their body weight. In our first trial, we put 10 Ceres Tag devices in a set of younger first calf heifers and monitored them over the course of 30 to 60 days.
"It was surprising to see some of the smaller heifers eating more than their contemporaries. A big 1400-pound heifer was our lowest consumer of forage based on the Ceres Tag algorithm. When it comes to doing genetics and measuring economically important phenotypes, the ability to pull out those outliers is at the core of making genetic progress,” said Rowan. This is especially important when considering the challenges ranchers face such as urbanization and grazing cattle on public lands. “In the West, we run on a lot of public lands and the government dictates how many animals we can graze on these lands. If we can have information that shows how much cattle are consuming and where they are grazing, it will impact how we are able to manage our resources for the better,” said Jackson. Having the ability to measure pasture-forage intake as an input cost is a game changer for cattlemen and women who are continually focused on improving their bottom line.
Ceres Tag devices are a technology that is placed in the ear of an animal. It has a multitude of features, but the Pasture Feed Intake feature is one of the most exciting. Over many years, different algorithms have been developed to make this feature possible. “The Pasture Feed Intake algorithm specifically was developed over a 15-year period by CSIRO in Australia. The algorithm considers walking, eating, resting, drinking, and most importantly, ruminating. And it uses those parameters to do the calculations. It’s not just one algorithm, it's a suite of eight different algorithms considering multiple factors. It wasn't developed overnight, and it was also matched up with other techniques to measure feed intake to turn it into a plug-and-play system that is easily applied in commercial settings,” said Smith. There is also a GPS feature that allows livestock owners to see where their cattle are located and how they move throughout pastures. Ceres Tag devices are reusable and designed to be easy to use.
Ceres Tag devices are being deployed across the world in both research and real-world settings across livestock species and wildlife. “The Australian Brahma Breeders Association are developing pasture-based EBVs on this information for feed efficiency on pasture. Other breeds are looking to go down this line as well,” said Smith. The ability to measure pasture-based forage intake has created opportunities for cattle producers to calculate more accurate break evens too. “I think the utility of this technology is a better accounting of which cows are pulling their weight, and which ones are maybe a little bit more of a forage sink for you. It’s hard to say if the cow who weans off a heavy calf every year is a net positive for us if we don’t know how much feed she is consuming,” said Rowan.
From making genetic improvements to improving grazing management and most importantly keeping a business mindset about grazing cattle; the future is bright with this technology being available to cattle producers.
Listen to the full podcast: https://www.casualcattleconversations.com/casual-cattle-conversations-podcast-shownotes/oe6u9ys1zbegd46r9a75venjjvcqla
