NASCalf Charts
Hello, and welcome to this NASCalf Knowledge Base video. In this episode, we’ll take a look at the charts that are generated as part of a simulation.
NASCalf provides two results screens: the Performance screen and the Scientific screen. We’ll start with the Performance screen. Here, you’ll see two sets of charts. The first group summarizes overall animal performance, including body weight, average daily gain, feed cost, feed efficiency, and intakes of liquid and dry feeds. These values are typically summarized over two-month periods, covering 0 to 2 months, 2 to 4 months, and the full 0 to 4 month period.
Body weight is displayed at birth, two months, and four months of age. As you change the feeding program or other inputs, both the axes and the values shown on these charts will update automatically to reflect the new simulation results.
The larger chart on the right side of the Performance screen shows daily changes in calf body weight, displayed in blue, alongside the target body weight curve based on your selected method for predicting average daily gain. This chart also displays daily intakes of liquid feed, dry grain, and forage.
In addition, the chart highlights the ages at which calves reach two important biological milestones. The first is when calves reach a calf starter intake of 1.3 kilograms per day. Based on a meta-analysis published in the 2021 NASEM Nutrient Requirements for Dairy Cattle, this intake level corresponds to the point at which microbial protein production reaches levels similar to those seen in mature ruminants.
The second milestone is the age at which calves reach a cumulative intake of 15 kilograms of non-fiber carbohydrates. Research published in the Journal of Dairy Science has shown that this level of fermentable carbohydrate intake indicates that the rumen has developed the capacity to ferment carbohydrates at rates comparable to mature animals. This is considered a key indicator that the calf is physiologically ready to be weaned.
All of these indicators are displayed directly on the Performance chart and will update automatically whenever changes are made to the feeding program.
Like all charts in NASCalf, these charts are interactive. If you left-click anywhere inside a chart, you’ll see a brief red flash, indicating that the underlying data used to create the chart has been copied to the clipboard. You can paste this data into applications such as Excel for further analysis. If you right-click inside a chart, you’ll see a green flash, indicating that an image of the chart has been copied to the clipboard. This makes it easy to paste charts directly into Excel, PowerPoint, or other programs for reporting and presentations.
The charts on the Scientific screen follow a similar structure but present the data in more detail. On the left side, you’ll see performance measures such as average daily gain and dry matter intake, displayed at 14-day intervals. The center charts show metabolizable protein and metabolizable energy requirements alongside their corresponding supplies, allowing you to evaluate how well nutrient supply matches animal requirements over time. Finally, in the lower right portion of the screen, you’ll see how protein and energy digestibility change over time for each of the three feed sources.
As with the Performance screen, all Scientific screen charts support both data copying with a left-click and image copying with a right-click.
That’s it for this episode. Thanks for watching, and be sure to check out the other NASCalf Knowledge Base videos to learn how to get the most out of the program. We’ll see you next time.
