Field note · 3 min · 2026-09-07
Empty bunks are starch events
Cows that wait, then eat fast, drop pH even when the printed diet never changed.
Slug feeding is a rate problem. After an empty bunk, dominant cows eat a large meal of whatever is left — often the finer, starchier fraction. Acid production outruns saliva for hours.
This is why push-up and delivery timing belong in a SARA investigation. A herd can look “underfed on paper” and still be acidic if the only meals are two frantic events.
Watch the first 30 minutes after delivery. If the rail clears in a rush and rumination stays quiet, the schematic on this page is already happening, regardless of the starch line on the sheet.
Meal pattern can create SARA without a formula change. Treat empty hours as a fermentation event.
Sources
- From Feed to Milk: Understanding Rumen Function — Penn State Extension
- Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle, 8th revised edition — National Academies (NASEM, 2021)