Two cows. Same milk production. But one costs $869 more per year to feed.
On paper, they look identical. Same tank contribution, same days in milk. But under the surface, one is converting feed far more efficiently than the other.
Without measuring individual feed intake and efficiency, there’s no way to see that difference. And if you can’t see it, you can’t select for it.
You know your bulk-tank average. You know your TMR cost. But you don't know which cow in your herd is converting 1.86 pounds of milk per pound of feed — and which one sitting next to her is giving you 1.33 on the exact same ration.
You know how your whole herd performs as a group. The problem is, averages hide your most and least profitable animals in the pen.
Right now you’re making breeding, replacement and feeding decisions without individual-cow efficiency numbers. This could be cutting into your margins. Inefficient, nonprofitable animals could be staying. Efficient, top performers might not be being bred forward.
The efficiency signal can vary up to 3× between cows in the same pen eating the same ration. If you're not measuring it, you can't see which animals are converting efficiently and which are costing you more than they return.
On a 1,000-cow dairy, that's the estimated annual value gap between your top and bottom quartile. Breeding the wrong cows forward. Drying off cows that should be donors.
Every day you're making keep / cull / breed decisions based on milk alone — and milk alone misses the most profitable cows in your herd about half the time.
The Metabolic Efficiency Index (MEI) ranks every cow in your herd by how efficiently she turns feed into profit. No more guessing which cows belong in your tank or which ones are making you the most money. We'll tell you.
Some get great gas mileage. Some are gas guzzlers. They might haul the same load - but one costs you a lot more to run.
MEI is the miles-per-gallon score for your cows.
We measure how much feed she eats at the milking robot or feed bunk.
No scales. No extra labor. No change to your routine.
We pull her milk volume and production stats - and finish the equation.
Components priced. Volume verified. Every cow, every day.
Two cows in the same herd, eating the same ration, producing nearly identical milk. One is a donor candidate. The other is a replacement candidate. Without MEI, they look the same.
$2.78/day to the manure pit
Feed at $316.67/ton DM. Both cows eating the same ration, same pen. The only difference is how efficiently they convert.
| Metric | Efficient Cow | Inefficient Cow |
| ECM (lbs/day) | 74.8 | 76.9 |
| Feed (DMI lbs/day) | 40.2 | 57.7 |
| Feed Conversion Ratio | 1.86 lbs milk / lb feed | 1.33 lbs milk / lb feed |
| CH₄ Intensity (g/kg ECM) | 6.9 | 10.0 |
| MEI Rank | Top 8% | Top 58% |
| Annual Feed Cost Difference | $1,016/year — 17.5 lbs/day more feed · $2.78/day to the manure pit | |
The research-grade continuous measurement system. Learn how GreenFeed unlocks the profit hiding in your herd.
Explore GreenFeedTalk to one of our dairy specialists about what a measurement deployment would look like on your operation.
Contact SalesSee What Feed Becomes.™
