Using Data to Build a More Efficient Cow Herd

C-Lock Inc. Helps Cow-Calf Producers Improve Genetics, Feed Efficiency, and On-Farm Decisions

Cow-calf producers have always relied on good stockmanship, experience, and observation to make herd management decisions. That hasn’t changed. But the economics have. With the U.S. cattle herd at its smallest size in more than 70 years, every cow on the place is worth more today than at any point in recent memory. Feed costs remain volatile, input prices aren’t coming down, and the margin for error on a breeding decision is thinner than it’s been in a generation.

That’s where on-ranch monitoring tools come in. Systems developed by C-Lock Inc.—including GreenFeed, SmartFeed, and SmartScale—are giving cattle producers access to individual animal data that used to be available only in university research herds. Feed intake, growth performance, and methane emissions can now be measured on individual animals under normal working conditions. For cow-calf producers, this kind of information translates directly into better breeding decisions, lower feed costs, and a more productive cow herd.

Why Feed Efficiency Matters in Cow-Calf Operations

Feed represents the largest single expense in beef production, accounting for 70–75% of total operating costs on most operations. When feed is your biggest cost, even a small improvement in efficiency moves the needle on profitability—and those improvements compound over time.

One key trait used to evaluate efficiency is Residual Feed Intake, or RFI. In plain terms, RFI measures the difference between how much feed an animal actually consumes and how much she should need based on her size and rate of gain. A low-RFI cow eats less than expected while maintaining the same performance. A high-RFI cow eats more than she should for what she’s producing. Research has shown that high- and low-RFI cattle can differ in intake by as much as eight pounds of feed per day. Across a herd of 200 cows over a winter feeding period, that kind of variation adds up fast.

Because RFI is heritable, enough to make real progress in two to three generations of intentional selection, choosing efficient cattle today means a more efficient herd five and ten years from now. Unlike a management change you repeat every year, genetic improvement is permanent and cumulative. The challenge has always been measuring individual feed intake. In a grazing system where cows eat side by side, knowing which ones are efficient and which ones aren’t has been nearly impossible, until now.

Knowing What Each Cow Actually Eats

SmartFeed is an individual intake monitoring system that reads each animal’s RFID ear tag and records exactly how much supplement or feed she consumes, every visit. Recent research has validated that SmartFeed accurately tracks both individual intake and feeding patterns—when she comes in, how long she stays, and how much she takes—in grazing cattle under normal working conditions. For cow-calf producers, this kind of data opens up several practical advantages. You can identify efficient cattle that consume less feed while maintaining productivity. You can evaluate whether your supplement program is actually working across the herd. And you can see intake variation that’s completely hidden when cattle are group-fed.

That last point matters more than most producers realize. Studies of grazing cattle have shown that supplement intake can vary two- to threefold between animals in the same pasture. Some cows consume far more than their share while others barely touch it. That variation directly affects performance, body condition, and reproductive outcomes. Understanding which animals use feed efficiently changes how you think about replacement selection. Keeping heifers out of cows that maintain good condition on less feed lowers your annual cow carrying cost for the next decade.

Tracking Growth Without Running Them Through the Chute

Weight gain and growth performance are the other side of the efficiency equation. SmartScale is an automated walk-over weighing platform that records body weights each time an animal crosses it on the way to water or feed—no chute, no labor, no stress. Continuous weight data gives a much clearer picture of growth trends than occasional chute weights. Daily weights can also be used to estimate dry matter intake (the actual feed consumed, minus water weight) and evaluate grazing performance across pastures and seasons.

For cow-calf producers, this means identifying animals that convert forage into weight gain more efficiently, detecting health or nutritional issues earlier—often before they’re visible—and making better stocking rate and forage utilization decisions. Together, intake from SmartFeed and weight data from SmartScale allow producers to calculate feed efficiency traits that were previously impossible to measure in pasture-based systems.

Measuring Methane: Feed Energy You’re Paying For

Here’s a number worth thinking about: 6–10% of the total energy in every pound of feed a cow eats leaves as methane gas during digestion. That’s feed you’re paying for that’s going into the air instead of into growth or milk. While methane is often discussed in environmental and sustainability conversations, it’s also an efficiency issue. An animal that loses less energy to methane has more energy available for production. And the variation between individual animals is significant.

The GreenFeed system measures methane and carbon dioxide production from individual animals under normal conditions. The animal walks up to the unit, puts her head in to receive a small amount of bait feed, and while she eats, the system measures the gases she exhales. Unlike respiration chambers—sealed rooms used in university research that require animals to be confined—GreenFeed collects data while cattle remain in their normal environment. This makes it practical to measure large numbers of cattle in feedlots, research herds, or pasture systems.

What Methane Data Tells You About Your Herd

Methane measurements provide a direct window into how efficiently individual cattle turn feed into pounds of calf. GreenFeed data can be used to evaluate feed additives or diet strategies designed to reduce methane loss, study genetic variation in methane production among animals, and identify cattle that convert more of their feed energy into production. Because methane production is heritable, enough to make measurable progress over a few generations of selection, researchers are working to incorporate emissions traits into breeding programs. As more methane data is collected across enough animals, it could eventually feed into EPD (Expected Progeny Difference) programs, giving producers a tool to select for energy efficiency the same way they select for growth, calving ease, or marbling today.

The Data Behind Better Genetics

One of the most promising applications of these tools is in genetic selection. By collecting large datasets on feed intake, growth, and methane production, researchers can identify animals with desirable traits and incorporate them into breeding programs. This is the phenotype behind the EPD—the actual measurement data that makes genetic predictions Accurate. EPDs are only as good as the measurements behind them, and until recently, traits like individual feed intake and methane production couldn’t be measured on enough animals in commercial settings to build reliable predictions. SmartFeed and GreenFeed are changing that. Selecting cattle that require less feed for the same production, maintain strong growth and reproductive performance, and produce lower methane emissions per unit of product creates long-term improvements that accumulate across generations. Unlike a management intervention that has to be repeated every year, genetic improvement is permanent and cumulative. Every generation builds on the last.

Practical Benefits for Cow-Calf Producers

While many of these tools started in research settings, they’re now being used by commercial operations looking for an edge on feed cost and genetic decisions.

For cow-calf producers, the data can help in five key areas:

1. Improve Replacement Female Selection

Which heifers to keep is one of the most consequential decisions a cow-calf producer makes. SmartFeed data shows you which heifers are doing the most with the least—the ones that will lower your annual cow cost for years to come.

2. Evaluate Nutrition Programs

Monitoring supplement intake alongside weight gain tells you whether your feeding strategy is actually delivering results across the Herd, not just on average.

3. Improve Breeding Decisions

Efficiency and emissions data can help producers evaluate sires based on daughter performance—not just catalog EPDs, but actual measured intake and gain on the daughters those bulls produce.

4. Reduce Feed Costs

Even small improvements in feed efficiency produce meaningful savings across a herd, especially over a multi-year selection program.

5. Recover Lost Energy

Methane emissions represent a 6–10% loss of total feed energy. Selecting for lower-emission cattle keeps more of the energy you’re paying for working inside the animal. In an era when every cow on the place matters more than she has in decades, the operations that measure, select, and improve will be the ones still standing when the cycle turns. The data to do it is available today.