Individual Intake Hay Basket Modification for SmartFeed Units

Case ID:

2021-008

BACKGROUND

Individualized livestock feeding systems are an indispensable facet of modern agricultural research, development, and production. However, these setups are often non-conducive to use with bulky feeding materials, such as long-stemmed hay. Research studies collecting hay intake data can decrease hay bulkiness (e.g., adding moisture, reducing particle size), but these changes to hay affect intake and do not provide an accurate representation of diets consumed in production settings. This creates a rift between research and field settings, the former of which is built around feeding systems designed to accommodate diets with high mass density. This rift is underscored given preliminary results of validation studies on genomic enhanced expected progeny difference (GE-EPD) on dry matter intake. Thus, there is a need for an apparatus to overcome present limitations on feeding media and can be effectively used with feeds more representative of forage and grazing systems, such as long-stemmed hay.

SUMMARY OF TECHNOLOGY

OSU researchers have engineered a hay basket apparatus which removably attaches to SmartFeed® individual intake units, above the feed bunk (Fig. 1). This inventive device cooperates with existing weight-measuring and RFID tag systems to enable accurate measurements of hay intake of cattle in field conditions. An adjustable head gate controls the degree of feed access. It also features a pivotable interior wall, minimizing waste from feeding. The basket can be loaded from either rolled or cubic bales, reducing waste from loading and tripling hay capacity compared to current models. This novel technology resolves the current disconnect between feeding conditions used in growth/GE-EPD research and field conditions with lower-quality forage diets, allowing for accurate dry matter distribution and measurement.

Figure 1: Inventive hay basket mounted on SmartFeed units.

POTENTIAL AREAS OF APPLICATION

Identifying cattle that are efficient forage utilizers.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions without reducing beef production.
Reducing the amount of grazing land required per unit of beef produced.
Research, breeding, and farming settings in which hay intake measurement is critical.

MAIN ADVANTAGES