NASCalf Matrix Tips and Tricks
Hello, and welcome to this NASCalf Matrix Tips and Tricks demonstration.
In this video, we’ll walk through the three matrices where you enter feeding program data: liquids, grains, and forages. Each matrix works a little differently, but understanding all three is key to getting the most out of NASCalf. Let’s get started.
We’ll begin with the liquid feeding program. From the menu, select Liquid Program, and then open the Composition view. Here, you’ll see a matrix with three liquid feeds—colostrum, transition milk, and milk replacer—and a set of nutrients ranging from dry matter through phosphorus.
You’ll also notice a checkbox labeled Feeding Program. We’ll come back to that in a moment.
When you’re finished entering data, you can click OK or Hide. Both do the same thing—they save the information in the background, so it’s included when NASCALF calculates calf growth.
The window itself is flexible. You can move it, resize it, and adjust it to fit your screen. You can enter up to six liquid feeds and view as many as 54 nutrients. If the matrix extends beyond the window, horizontal and vertical scroll bars will appear automatically.
If you want to add a feed, this is where you do it. For example, if you plan to switch from milk replacer to whole milk later in the program, you can add another liquid feed and select it from the feed library. You can also modify nutrient values directly in the matrix.
All nutrient values here are expressed on a dry matter basis, so it’s important to enter values correctly. For example, if your milk replacer tag lists 26% protein, you’ll need to convert that to a dry matter basis. One easy way to do this is to right-click in the cell to open the built-in calculator. Divide the tag value by dry matter, then click P to paste the result directly into the cell.
You can use the same approach for fat or any other nutrient. Amino acids—like lysine and methionine—are expressed as a percent of crude protein, so keep that in mind when setting requirements. Vitamins, such as vitamin A, are shown in their own units, like IU per kilogram of dry matter, which are clearly labeled in the column headers.
You can resize columns by dragging the column edges, resize rows if needed, and adjust the window itself. If there are nutrients you don’t care about—like NDF, starch, or lignin in a milk replacer—you can simply left-click the column header to hide them and keep the matrix focused on what matters.
Once you’ve finished entering nutrient composition, you can move on to the feeding program by checking the Feeding Program box.
Here, each feed includes a cost row, followed by a series of feeding periods. Each period has a begin day, an end day, and a feeding rate, expressed on an as-fed basis. For liquids, that might be liters of milk or grams of milk replacer powder.
Periods always begin the day after the previous period ends, and the begin day is set automatically. You only need to define the end day and feeding level.
In this example, we feed colostrum on day one, followed by a short transition period, then move into milk replacer feeding. As calves approach weaning, feeding levels are gradually reduced until the final day of feeding, with weaning occurring the next day.
You can use up to 20 feeding periods, although most programs only need five or six. If you want a simpler program, you can reduce the number of periods, and NASCalf will automatically reset unused values to zero.
If you would like to remove a feed row, you have two options. First, you can manually copy each row below the row you’d like to remove and then change the number of rows to one minus the current number of rows. You can also hide a row and set all feeding values to zero. Do this by left-clicking the row header and answering “yes” to the prompt. The program will set day begin and day end to zero for dry feeds and set all grams fed per day to zero for liquid feeds. The rows is then set to hidden. It is not deleted, but doesn’t participate in the calculations.
Now let’s move to the grain feeding program, which is a bit simpler. Here, we define which grain feeds are offered, their costs, and the days they’re first and last available. One feed must always extend through the final day of the simulation—day 122—so calves always have access to a dry feed source.
You can also set maximum intake limits. For example, if you cap grain intake at 2.5 kilograms per day, NASCalf will automatically increase forage intake to make up the difference in dry matter. This helps you explore scenarios where forage plays a larger role in the diet.
Avoid setting maximums to zero—this tells the program the feed is no longer offered. Instead, use a large value like 9 or 999 to represent ad libitum intake.
The forage program works very much like the grain program. You define when forage is offered, its cost, and any intake limits. You can also specify forage as a percentage of dry matter intake, which is useful if forage is included as part of a TMR.
If forage is offered free choice, NASCALF needs a reasonable estimate. Research suggests that assuming 6 to 10 percent of total dry matter intake as forage works well in most situations, with 8 percent being a common default.
Once all inputs are complete, click OK or Hide to save your work.
One final tip: you can open multiple matrices at the same time. For example, you might want to view grain and forage composition side by side. Each matrix opens in its own window, making comparisons easy.
That wraps up this overview of NASCalf matrices and some helpful tips and tricks. I hope you found this useful, and we’ll see you next time.
