Shake the bunk, not the memory
The particle box is only honest if the sample is the diet the cow can reach.
3 min read · 2026-09-07
The formulated sheet and a mixer-wagon grab are the intended diet. The cow's diet is what lands on the bunk after delivery, segregation, and sorting.
Sample across the feed face once the pile has settled — beginning, middle, and end — and take a full vertical cross-section down to the floor, not a skim off the pretty top.
Write moisture and mixer time on the bag. Shake fresh feed and then the refusals the same way with the Penn State Particle Separator.
One scoop from a sorted corner lies.
Read peNDF risk from the top-three screens (≥19, 8, and 4 mm) against the pan guideline — not from an empty top sieve alone.
Dominant cows may eat the fines early while later cows get the stems; the refusal map shows that split.
A PSPS number without a bunk map is just a number.
Sources
- Penn State Particle Separator — Penn State Extension
- Methods Used to Measure Forage and Ration Particle Size — Penn State Extension