Here is a lesson in bovine scatology.
You can tell a lot about animal performance from observing the color, texture, and consistency of manure piles. Back when I was in the research business at the U of Moo, we used to weigh beef stockers every 21 or 28 days depending on the project. Before getting cattle in for weighing, we used to look at the manure piles in the pastures and try to estimate what the average daily gain (ADG) for that particular set of steers would be based on the manure output. Several of us got to be quite good at it. Just like you can calibrate your eye to estimate forage yield, you can also calibrate your eye to manure to estimate performance.
I snapped a couple of example photos the other day. In my experience, an animal producing manure like what you see below would be expected to be gaining at least 2 lbs/day. High performance manure will usually be smooth in texture and make a nice raised dome.
Doing the boot smear assessment, the manure should be creamy and shiny. There should be little evidence of undigested fiber in the smear as seen below.
The photo below would only be in the 1.5 range. Indigestible fiber increases with plant maturity or if we ask the cattle to graze too much of the plant. The shape and contour of the pile changes quickly from the smooth dome we saw in the previous two photos to a textured mound. The more undigested fiber, the higher the mound grows.
When we do the boot smear here, the surface is pitted and rough with little sheen to it. Closer examination shows the entire surface consists of undigested fiber segments.
If you can keep the cattle’s manure smooth, performance will be good.