Supplementary feeding is the provision of feed to animals on pasture so as to improve animal performance and, in some cases, pasture performance.

When supplements are fed to stock, there are three possible outcomes, depending on whether energy or protein supplements are used and on how the pasture and supplement interact during digestion: supplementation, substitution, complementation. This Primefact discusses these three terms, as well as the following:

• intake;
• training;
• supplement delivery;
• how to feed supplements;
• examples of supplementation;
• feed value;
• potential problems;
• guidelines for substituting some of the grain in the ration with hay;
• minimum requirements.