You may have heard the oft-repeated quote, “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” It’s a cautionary comment about having a narrow perspective to address challenges. Quite often, supplementing cattle on pasture bears negative connotations due to added labour, cost and logistical challenges with supplementation. Perhaps we could think of supplementation as a tool for producers while their cattle are grazing. In this context, supplementation would be more like a multi-tool rather than a hammer. For example, supplementation can be used to offset nutritional deficiencies that are in forage,
can be used to reduce forage intake, or can be used to increase forage intake. The opposite response for the last two outcomes is exactly why supplementation can be considered as a multi-tool.

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