Bunk Management

1
Bunk Management

• Importance
• Acidosis
• Consistent Intake vs Consistent Patterns
• Gain and Efficiency
• Employee Management
• Feedlot Efficiency

2
Bunk Management

• Challenges
• Delivery correct amount of feed
• What will these cattle eat today?
• How much feed is remaining in the bunk?
• How aggressive are these cattle?
• When should they be fed?
• Right feed in the right bunk.
• How much do I move them down?

3
Bunk Management Strategies

• Continuos feed in bunk
• Clean once per day
• Clean bunk programs
• Slick bunk programs

4
Continuos Feed

• Cattle always have feed
• No limits in performance
• Less control in feed intake (delivery)
• Feed wastage (mold, precipitation)
• Responsibility belongs to feed caller (solely)

5
Clean Bunk Management

• Goal
• Maintain or increase feed consumption
• Gain and efficiency unchanged or improved
• Reduce feed wastage
• You have more control on feed intake (delivery)
• Some period of time with no feed (hours)
• Less Responsibility on Feed Caller

6
Feedlot PerformanceFirst 75 DOF
7
Access to Feed (Time)OSU Study
Diets 80 whole corn, 5 cottonseed hulls, 8
supplement.
8
Bunk Mgmt Feeding Rumensin
Erickson et al., 2003 J. Anim. Sci.
9
Bunk Mgmt Feeding Rumensin
Erickson et al., 2003 J. Anim. Sci.
10
Bunk Mgmt Feeding Rumensin
Erickson et al., 2003 J. Anim. Sci.
11
Bunk Mgmt Feeding Rumensin
Erickson et al., 2003 J. Anim. Sci.