Knowledge about dry matter intake (DMI) is a very important element in cattle management. Modern, high producing dairy cows require great amount of feed in order to meet the nutrient and energy requirements for maintenance and milk production, particularly during early lactation. In beef animals, current breeding strategies aim to select animals with low residual feed intake. Therefore, individual feed intake evaluation helps to identify the productivity and efficiency of each animal, in relation to the amount of feed being consumed. Additionally, measurement of DMI as precisely as possible is essential for optimizing diet formulation without compromising animal welfare. Various factors at the animal, environmental and dietary level contribute to the level of DMI in an individual. For example, breed, age, parity, body weight, body condition score, stage of lactation, the type and quality of the feed offered, solar radiation, environmental temperature and relative humidity all have an impact on DMI. A recent method of monitoring feed intake involves the use of an electronic system that automatically records feed intake data by measuring the differences of feed in the trough before and after feed consumption. These systems, e.g. Insentec (Maknesse, The Netherlands) or Biocontrol (Rakkestad, Norway), typically use radio frequency identification (RFID) to identify individual cows and monitor individual consumption. An RFID transponder located on the cow, usually in an ear tag or collar, interacts with an RFID reader placed at the feeding area to identify individuals. Additionally, these transponders can allow the operator to record water intake and drinking behaviour of cattle (i.e., frequency and duration of visits to the water trough). Cattle generally consume a large amount of water in comparison to other animals. Several factors, including water quality, feed dry matter, DMI, distance from feed to water, weather conditions, social factors and milk production, all influence the rate of voluntary water intake (VWI) in cattle. Monitoring VWI is crucial for cattle management, as a reduction in VWI will lead to lower feed intake and subsequent production loss in cattle.

Chapter of the Living Handbook Methods in cattle physiology and behaviour – Recommendations from the SmartCow consortium