What feedbunk monitoring tells us about feed inconsistency

While the number of hours a dairy farm’s managers and employees spend with animals is incalculable, the time spent intentionally observing those animals is often too low.

To get beyond these limitations, installing cameras at elevated positions for 24 hours a day, seven days a week can result in enlightening — and even a few concerning — observations.

This camera-led analysis can enable us to spot the positive and negative trends that drive dairy cow performance and impact gastrointestinal (GI) tract health.

Studies of cow behavior and employee procedures focus on the highest-risk members of the herd: the lactating high group and fresh cows. Trail cameras are installed on the feedbunks to focus on the cow subjects and their interactions with a key component of their day — feed. The cameras capture pictures every 10 seconds, allowing nutritionists to review and track events in 15-minute increments with particular attention to the following:

• Cows leaving for and returning from the parlor: This helps quantify how long the cows are away from the pen.
• Timing of feedbunk cleaning: Especially during the warmer months, this is incredibly insightful to ensure removal of day-old feed.
• Timing of the first feed delivery and additional feedings to track daily consistency.
• Cow lock-up and headlock release: Aggregate the length of time the cows are locked up daily and how long they are denied access to stalls.
• Feed push-up times: Quantifying the frequency of feed push-ups helps in strategizing the optimal times for feed push-ups coordinated with the timing of feed delivery and the cows’ return from the parlor. This helps managers balance the feasibility of labor management with cow behavior.
• Bunk feed volume: Take a hard look at when cows are reaching for feed, when feedbunks are partially out of feed and need redistributing, if bunks are completely empty, and the timeline before fresh feed arrives. This footage can inform feeders’ decisions to feed more or less per pen and how to strategically allocate refusals.

After reviewing a week’s worth of footage, a big picture diagram of the seven days — from midnight to midnight — in 15-minute blocks is presented to owners and managers to offer a complete timeline of events. The farm’s team can then cross-examine consistency of actions and discuss opportunities to improve through addition, subtraction or general adjustments to feed push-up times.

Impactful observations are highlighted through screen captures and incorporated into an overall report. This usually includes observations of good management that can be used to congratulate and coach the team, and it also calls out opportunities that may exist for improved management.

While footage of the inner workings of a dairy may seem intrusive, this isn’t meant to police employees who may be throwing off protocol. Rather, utilize this tool as an opportunity to track cows’ time budgets and then derive the best means to secure a more consistent day for them. Cows crave consistency and, in turn, this adds the benefit of more efficient labor.

This article was originally published in the July 2025 issue of Hoard’s Dairyman.