The innovative use of a blue food dye leaves a telltale sign on the lips of animals which have taken to a newly introduced grain or pellet feed.

Shy animals can immediately be drafted out for separate management using the strategy which has been successfully field tested by Gerard Roney of Victorian company Advantage Feeders.

Mr Roney said it was natural flock behaviour for up to 5 percent of animals in any mob to miss out on the nutritional boost of supplementary feed.

“Traditionally poor feeders are only identified weeks later when the flock is weighed. By this stage the animals are going backwards in condition and it is very hard to turn them around and get them onto a rising plain of nutrition,” he said.

“This represents a significant loss in productivity whether it is a mob of lambs being finished in a feedlot or ewes being supplementary fed in the paddock.”

Mr Roney perfected the dye technique on his family property near Bendigo.

“I saw this as a significant issue and decided to see if we could come up with a solution,” said Mr Roney who markets his award-winning feeder units around Australia and New Zealand.

The 2.5-tonne capacity units are fitted with adjustable slides, which can limit daily animal intake to as little as 200 grams for sheep and one kilogram for cattle.

The company also sells a range of feed-saving hay racks for all popular size bales.

Mr Roney said it was best to let the animals settle on their new diet for three or four days before introducing the feed dye.

“I settled on blue dye because it really stands out on the sheeps ‘lips. You only need to add it at a rate of about 50 grams to 100 kilos of feed mix. You can pick up the telltale colour of their lips within days of introducing the dye.”

He said there was a number of management options once shy feeders were identified including putting them in a group on their own where they would take to introduced feed successfully.