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Predicting Voluntary Forage Intake In Cattle, C.A. Bandyk, R.C. Cochran

Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports

A large database was compiled of forage intake observations published during the past 20 years. Inputs included a wide range of factors believed to be related to voluntary intake. An analysis was designed to pinpoint which feed and animal characteristics were most valuable in predicting voluntary intake across a range of feeding situations and to compare the ability of different models to predict intake. Results emphasized the complexity of intake prediction. A wide range was evident in the variables included in the optimal models for predicting intake within different data subsets. In many cases, we observed that ratios between feed …