Residual Feed Intake
Residual Feed Intake is a measure of feed efficiency calculated on animals measured for both weight gain and weight of feed consumed over a test period.
An RFI number represents the pounds of dry matter feed an animal consumed each day on test above or below its requirements for maintenance and production.
LoIn-HiOut has a minus 2.41 RFI. This means he consumed 2.41 lbs less feed per day on a dry matter basis to gain and maintain at the same rate as his pen mates as an average. That’s 241 pound less feed over 100 days than a bull in his test group with a 0 RFI or 482 pounds less feed than a +2.41 RFI bull.
RFI is moderately heritable, similar to the heritability of carcass traits. If your herd is average and you used LoIn-HiOut on all your cows you can do the math and see what using him will save you every year! |
