Glossary · Feed Bunk
Bunk Score
A 0-5 daily visual rating of feed remaining in the bunk before the next delivery. The Penn State scale is the industry standard.
Bunk score is a daily visual assessment of how much feed is left in the bunk before the next delivery. The Penn State 0–5 scale is the industry reference:
- 0 — Bunk completely empty. No feed visible.
- 1 — Bunk almost empty. Trace amounts only.
- 2 — Some feed remaining but most is gone.
- 3 — Approximately half feed remaining.
- 4 — Most feed still in the bunk.
- 5 — Feed full and untouched.
Most dairies aim for 0.5–1 daily — enough to ensure cows have not gone without feed, not so much that wastage piles up.
Manual bunk scoring is a once-daily snapshot. The smaller patterns — overnight empty hours, pushup spacing, weekend timing slips — are visible only in continuous monitoring data. AI-based feed bunk monitoring (e.g., FeedBunk AI) runs continuously and captures every delivery and pushup, producing the resolution that manual scoring can’t.
What matters most isn’t the absolute score on any one day — it’s the trend over time, observed under consistent conditions (same time, same person, same place).