Nighttime Feeding, Daytime Calving

Gus Konefal, a rancher in Manitoba first developed this feeding method after he discovered that 80% of his cows calved between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m when they were fed later in the day. Konefal’s method included a twice a day feeding, with first feeding between 11:00 a.m. and noon and second feeding between 9:30-10:00 p.m.

Similar research at Iowa State University using the Konefal feeding system, but only feeding one time per day at 4 p.m., starting 2 weeks prior to the expected start of calving, resulted in 82% of cows calving between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. In addition, calves born between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. (75% of the 24 hour day) was 91%. Therefore, only 9% of calves were born outside the window when traditional calf checks are performed. An important thing to note is that when heifers were separated from the data set and analyzed, 90% of the heifers also calved in this same time frame. A survey collected from 15 beef producers in Iowa and Missouri reported feeding once daily between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. resulted in 85% of cows calving between 5 a.m. and midnight. Compare this data to cows not on the Konefel feeding system in the same herds that were calving 50/50% day and night.