Large variability of intake of lick-block supplement among individual animals under different forage types in group-fed cattle

Abstract

Novel in-paddock technologies, such as electronic feeders (EF), allow measuring individual supplement intake and feeding behaviour of molasses and mineral blocks offered as free-choice to group-fed cattle. EF might also help to capture temporal changes in supplement intake as a result of forage type and grazing management (Titgemeyer et al., 2004). We studied the variability in lick-block supplement intake of individual animals as they grazed paddocks with different forage quantity and quality