Improved feed management involves a lot more than how to store it. Producers can save thousands of dollars each year while enhancing nutrition, herd health and milk production.

The largest operating cost on all farms is feed, and one of the most influential variables going into feed cost and management is shrink. Whether it is shrink from spoilage, overfeeding, mixing errors or simply poor environmental conditions, it represents feed that is purchased but never consumed by the cow.

Planning ahead is the key to accurate forage inventories and minimizing costly waste. Universities offer checklists and calculators to guide dairy and cattle producers, while extension specialists and feed company representatives provide practical advice on storage, sampling and shrink calculations.

In the cattle industry, you are either selling cattle by the pound or you are selling cattle or genetics to other ranchers who are selling cattle by the pound. Weights are critical in every stage of the cattle cycle – from a calf’s birth, weaning, yearling and sale weight to mature/gain weights of cows and bulls for monitoring body condition score (BCS).

With respect to cattle inventories and price levels for both cattle and beef, the cattle industry is experiencing unprecedented times. Certainly, there have been swings both upward and downward in the feeder calf market, but prices have generally been historically high the past couple years, with the same expectations for 2025 and 2026. 

Some dairies across the country are using larger inclusion mixes due to lack of feed storage options. Still in other cases, some feed companies are proposing larger inclusion grain mixes to their customers.

One of the beef industry’s greatest strengths is its diversity. However, this segmentation often results in a calf being transported as many as four to six times prior to harvest, with each transit event inducing stress.

Ranching brings rewards, but it’s not all “sunshine and rainbows.” With drought and high input costs in the balance, it takes sharp management decisions to keep black ink on the bottom line.

“Shrink, the unpaid loss of weight, is essentially an important cost of marketing,” says Chris Bastian, a professor in the department of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wyoming.