This tool is designed to help you to plan your rotational grazing systems, determine appropriate stocking rates, calculate your pasture growth rates, determine how long your paddocks will last and calculate the most economical ration for your stock. You can now also keep track of the carrying capacity (stocking rate) of each paddock by recording your dry sheep equivalent grazing days/ha. Maintenance fertiliser requirements can then be calculated.
The tool consists of 11 individual calculators which include:
- How long will the paddock last? A calculator designed to determine the total feed on offer, daily intake per ha and wastage of paddocks running one or more stock type.
- How much feed will be available at the end of the grazing period? A calculator designed to determine the daily growth, intake, and wastage of a paddock to determine feed on offer after a period of time running one or more stock types.
- How many head can I run in this paddock? This calculator can be used when setting up rotations for the whole farm to determine how many head to put in a set of paddocks that work well together. It can also be used when allocating stock to lambing/calving paddocks for a set period, or to determine the number animals required to knock a paddock down quickly to remove excess feed at the autumn break or as part of a spray/graze weed management program.
- How many hectares do I need? This calculator has been designed to determine the area required for a mob of animals grazing for a set period. This calculator is particularly useful for setting up rotations on the whole farm.
- Summer feed budget The aim of the Summer feed budget is to determine the amount of feed you will have available at the end of each month of summer, based on the feed on hand in Spring. The minimum targets required to meet livestock requirements will depend on the stock class.
- Winter feed budget The aim of the Winter feed budget is to determine the amount of feed you will have available at the end of each month of winter, based on the feed on hand in Autumn.
- Rotation planner This calculator helps determine the number of days a paddock should be grazed as part of a rotation. It also determines appropriate rest periods for paddocks and predicts food on offer for a paddock when it re-enters the rotation.
- Farm paddock grazing days recorder A tool to record mob names, dry sheep equivalent (DSE) and paddock rotation of your stock to help keep accurate paddock records.
- Calculate phosphorus required and cost This tool is designed to provide a quick estimate of the maintenance and capital phosphorus requirements on your farm, and to compare costs of different fertiliser options.
- Feeding supplements at pasture This calculator allows you to calculate the supplementary feeding requirements of sheep and cattle, accounting for pasture intake of given feed on offer and quality.
- Compare nitrogen, gibberellic acid and supplement values This calculator can be used to compare the cost of feeding with applying nitrogen to boost winter production.
