RBFY Pen-Level DMI Spatial Analysis

Author

Lucas Horton, PhD

Published

June 8, 2026

Description

This report characterizes spatial patterns of dry matter intake (DMI) across pens at Royal Beef Feedyard using operational data from June 2022 to current. The analytical unit is the pen-week. To be included, a pen-week was required to represent a designated feeding pen with a weekly average of at least 30 animals, have at least five days of feeding records during the week, and maintain consistent lot occupancy throughout the week. Hospital, receiving, processing, sort, and shipping were excluded.

Descriptive DMI heat maps

DMI / animal

DMI as % body weight (BW)

DMI as % metabolic body weight (MBW)

Filterable map by key factors

DMI as % metabolic body weight

June 2022 to current

Combinations pre-computed: 60 
Pen-combination rows:      16049 

The color scale anchors to the minimum and maximum values within the currently selected combination (i.e., the legend scale changes with each change to filterable parameters).

Baseline mixed model

Descriptive statistics of outcome and candidate variables

Continuous

Categorical

Rations

Model data prep

Liearity assessment of continuous predictors

Final mixed model

Diagnostics

Blup extraction

Model adjusted heatmap

Color scale limits: ± 1.972 lb/hd/day
Pens beyond color limit: 4