C Magazine - Fall 2018

C Tomorrow

2018-11-10 05:13:46

Bluetooth-Enabled Feeding

“When should I sell my cattle and will I turn a profit?” That’s the million-dollar question for every cattle feeder every day, says Bob Goetz, manager of the CHS Value-Added Livestock Program. Many still make the decision the old-fashioned way: with their eyes. But top producers are turning to technology to help them track important aspects of feeding cattle — and to ensure their eyes don’t deceive them.

The Bluetooth-enabled Performance Beef app has been on the smartphones and tablets of CHS feed customers since 2016. The app got its start when a developer working on Google weather models returned to his Iowa home farm. Since the slightest change in humidity or temperature can affect how cattle eat and gain weight, his background was perfect for designing an app to track critical factors such as daily cost of gain.

A smart-scale device automates feed delivery and captures every pound of feed delivered and every dollar spent. With real-time access to on-farm data on any device, many CHS customers allow their nutritionists to see the same data at the same time.

“Feed programs aren’t new,” says Goetz, “but many are just cattle-tracking tools. This is a true financial management tool for livestock producers, giving them exactly the data they need to decide when it’s time to go to market.”

— Lisa Graham-Peterson

Published by CHS Inc. View All Articles.

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