Lasso Your Future with the 2025 Cow-Calf Certification Challenge – Moo-ve Towards Success!

Providing free choice feeding, where cattle have unlimited access to feed, presents the challenge of monitoring intake. This approach allows animals to eat as much as they desire at any time, which can complicate the ability to track how much each animal consumes. Understanding individual intake is vital for managing nutrition, health, and production efficiency in a cow-calf operation. Without being able to monitor feed consumption accurately, it's challenging to assess if cattle are meeting their nutritional needs, which can lead to unintended consequences like over- or underfeeding.

This monitoring challenge contrasts with other aspects of feeding management—such as land requirements, labor costs, or spoilage. While extensive land may be needed when considering animal density, labor costs can fluctuate based on how feeding systems are managed, and feed spoilage can be managed with proper strategies. However, the unique challenge associated with ensuring each animal's intake is a significant concern in free choice feeding systems.