Beef Cattle Mythbuster

Myth: It makes no difference if one calculates cow feed intake on a dry matter basis or an as-fed basis.

Answer: Oh, but it does matter!

Okay, here we go! This is one of those topics that probably caused more confusion among my students than most any question I asked them (or had them calculate on an exam!). Let’s make some practical sense of this and how it applies to the real world for cattle producers.

Before we can address this concept, we define our terms: As-is (or as-fed) basis refers to selling or using feed with no adjustments made for moisture content. On the other hand, feed sold or...