It's believed by feeding in the evening, the majority of cows will give birth during daylight hours, easing human labor needs and boosting calf survival.

A survey collected from 15 beef producers in Iowa and Missouri reported feeding once daily between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. resulted in 85% of cows calving between 5 a.m. and midnight. Compare this data to cows not on the Konefel feeding system in the same herds that were calving 50/50% day and night.

When cattle were fed at 9:00 am, 57% of the calves were born during the day compared to 79% when feeding occurred at 10:00 pm. In field trials by cattlemen utilizing night feeding when 35 cows and heifers were fed once daily between 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm, 74.5% of the calves were born between 5:00 am and 5:00 pm.

In one of the largest trials conducted, 1331 cows on 15 farms in Iowa were fed once daily at dusk, 85% of the calves in those herds were born from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. It is noteworthy that the change from morning to night feeding can be made as soon as a week before calving and result in the benefit of more calves born during the day.