Why use this calculator
Feed is the biggest single cost in a dry season and the decision that has to be made earliest, usually before you know how long the dry will last. Guessing tonnage is how producers end up buying hay in the third month of a drought at double the price they could have secured it for in the first.
A written feed budget turns a vague worry into a number you can act on: tonnes to secure, dollars per head per day, and a date the feed runs out. That number is also the honest basis for the harder decision. When the cost per head per day of holding stock is compared with agistment, with the cost of selling now and re-buying later, or with the value of the pasture and groundcover you are protecting, the answer often changes. Producers who run the budget early tend to sell earlier, keep better groundcover and buy feed cheaper.
How to use it
- Choose the stock class being fed, which sets a typical dry matter intake as a percentage of liveweight, or choose custom and enter your own figure.
- Enter the number of head from your last muster or stock reconciliation.
- Enter the average liveweight from a sample over the scales, because intake scales directly with it and a guess here moves everything.
- If you chose custom, enter the intake percentage, remembering maintenance sits near 2 per cent and lactation near 3.3.
- Enter the dry matter percentage of the feed from a feed test, since hay and grain sit near 85 to 90 per cent but pit silage can be as low as 35.
- Enter a realistic wastage percentage for the way you feed out.
- Enter the number of days you expect to feed, then the delivered price per tonne including freight, and the average weight of the bales you are handling.
What each result means
- Dry matter per head per day
- The feed the animal needs measured with all water removed, which is how every feed test and ration is expressed.
- Feed required per head per day
- Actual kilograms to put out per head, including wastage. This is what you measure into the trail or trough.
- Bales to feed out each day
- The mob's daily ration expressed as bales at the weight you entered, so you know how many to load on the feed-out trailer every morning.
- Mob requirement per day
- Tonnage for the whole mob each day, which sets how big the feeding run is and how often you cart.
- Total feed for the period
- Tonnes to secure for the planned feeding period. Buy early, because feed gets dearer as a dry season goes on.
- Bales required
- How many bales that tonnage represents at the bale weight you entered, for shed space and cartage planning.
- Cost per head per day
- The core decision number. Compare it with agistment, with selling and re-buying, and with the value of your groundcover.
- Cost per head for the period
- What each animal costs to carry through the whole planned period, before labour, fuel and machinery.
- Total feed cost
- The feed bill for the mob. Add freight beyond the farm gate, labour and machinery to get the real cost of feeding.
- Feed lost to wastage
- Tonnes that never reach an animal. Changing how you feed out is usually the cheapest tonnes you will ever find.
The formula
Dry matter per head per day in kilograms = average liveweight in kilograms x intake percentage divided by 100
As fed kilograms per head per day = dry matter requirement divided by the feed dry matter percentage divided by 100
Feed actually put out = as fed requirement divided by one minus the wastage percentage divided by 100
Mob requirement per day = feed put out per head x number of head
Total feed in tonnes = mob requirement per day x days divided by 1,000
Cost per head per day = feed put out per head divided by 1,000, multiplied by the price per tonne as fed
How this number is used in practice
Intake as a percentage of liveweight is a planning figure, not a ration. Maintenance for a dry adult animal sits near 2 per cent of liveweight in dry matter, a lactating cow will eat toward 2.7, and young growing stock toward 3 or more. But an animal can only eat that much if the feed is good enough.
Poor quality, low digestibility roughage physically fills the rumen and passes slowly, so stock cannot eat enough of it to meet their requirement no matter how much you put out, and they lose condition on a full gut. That is the trap in cheap straw.
When quality is the constraint, the answer is a better feed or a supplement, not more tonnes, and a metabolisable energy based ration from a feed test is what the decision actually needs.
District and season change the arithmetic more than most tables admit. In northern Australia a dry season feed budget is usually about protein on standing dry feed, and a urea or protein meal supplement at a few hundred grams a head a day costs a fraction of a full ration.
In the southern high rainfall zone, a feed gap is usually short and is filled with silage or hay conserved on farm. In the pastoral zone, the practical answer is often to sell rather than feed, because the distances make freight the dominant cost and carrying stock through destroys the groundcover that has to carry the recovery. The same cost per head per day means different things depending on which of those you are in.
Two operational rules pay for themselves. First, introduce grain slowly over two to three weeks and provide a buffer such as lime or hay, because acidosis kills animals quickly when a mob goes onto grain too fast. Second, feeding out on the ground in a wet paddock can waste a third of what you cart, so trough or ring feeding usually pays for itself within a season.
Also keep drinking water in front of stock: intake and survival depend on water before they depend on feed, and a dry season is exactly when dams and troughs are under the most pressure.
Worked examples
400 dry beef cows at 450 kg, hay at 90 per cent dry matter, 10 per cent wastage, 90 days, hay at $400 a tonne
11.11 kg as fed per head per day, 400 t of hay and $160,000 for the period, or $4.44 per head per day
1,200 late pregnant ewes at 60 kg fed for 60 days on 90 per cent dry matter grain at $480 a tonne, 8 per cent wastage
1.81 kg as fed per head per day, 130.4 t for the mob and $0.87 per head per day
250 beef weaners at 280 kg on pit silage at 40 per cent dry matter for 45 days, 15 per cent wastage, silage at $180 a tonne as fed
24.71 kg as fed per head per day and 277.9 t of silage, because wet feed weighs far more for the same dry matter
When people use it
- Building a drought feed budget and deciding how much hay or grain to secure early
- Comparing the cost per head per day of feeding against agistment or selling and re-buying
- Planning shed space, bale numbers and cartage for a winter feeding program
- Budgeting supplementary feeding of late pregnant and lactating ewes through a feed gap
- Sizing a silage pit or hay requirement for a feedlot or containment feeding area
Tips
- Weigh a sample of the mob rather than guessing liveweight. Intake scales directly with it, so a 10 per cent error carries through everything.
- Get a feed test. Dry matter, energy and protein vary hugely between hay lots and the price per tonne tells you nothing about them.
- Budget past your expected break. Feeding periods almost always run longer than planned and late feed is the dearest feed.
- Feed in troughs or ring feeders rather than on wet ground. Cutting wastage from 25 per cent to 10 is free tonnes.
- Introduce grain over two to three weeks and keep roughage or a buffer in front of stock to avoid acidosis.
- Use containment feeding areas to protect paddock groundcover. The pasture you save is what carries the recovery when it rains.
What it assumes, and where it stops being accurate
- Assumes intake is limited by appetite rather than by feed quality. Low digestibility roughage such as straw restricts intake below these figures no matter how much is offered.
- Assumes a single average liveweight for the mob. A mixed mob of cows and weaners has very different requirements and should be budgeted separately.
- Not a ration. It does not check metabolisable energy, crude protein, fibre, calcium or the risk of acidosis, and it is not a substitute for a nutritionist or a feed test.
- Assumes the feed is available for the whole period at the price entered. In a dry season both price and availability move against you as the season goes on.
- Ignores any pasture or standing dry feed still available, so a full ration budget overstates requirements where stock are getting part of their intake from the paddock.
- Excludes labour, fuel, machinery, water cartage and freight beyond the farm gate, which together can add a large share again to the cost per head per day.
Terms used on this page
- Dry matter
- Feed weight with all moisture removed, the basis on which all intake requirements and feed tests are expressed.
- Dry sheep equivalent
- A standard unit of feed demand, roughly a 50 kg wether at maintenance, used to compare classes of stock.
- Metabolisable energy
- The energy in a feed actually available to the animal, measured in megajoules per kilogram of dry matter.
- Containment feeding
- Holding and feeding stock in a small designated area to protect groundcover and pasture in the rest of the farm.
- Acidosis
- A dangerous drop in rumen pH caused by introducing grain too quickly, often fatal without a slow transition.
Questions people ask
- What is the difference between dry matter and as fed?
- Dry matter is the feed with all water removed, which is how requirements and feed tests are expressed. As fed is what you physically handle. Hay near 90 per cent dry matter and silage near 40 per cent can carry the same dry matter in very different weights, so always convert before comparing prices.
- What intake percentage should I use for my stock?
- As a planning figure, maintenance for dry adult cattle and sheep is near 2 per cent of liveweight in dry matter, late pregnancy near 2.5, lactation 2.7 to 3.3, and growing young stock 3 to 3.5. A milking dairy cow can exceed 3.4. Quality and body condition shift all of these.
- How much wastage should I allow?
- Trail feeding hay on wet ground can waste 20 to 30 per cent, a ring feeder or trough usually keeps it to 5 to 10 per cent, and grain fed in troughs can be lower again. The cheapest tonnes in any feed budget come from cutting wastage rather than buying more feed.
- Is it cheaper to feed stock or to sell them?
- Compare the cost per head per day over the likely feeding period against the value of the animal, the cost of replacing it later, agistment rates and the damage feeding does to groundcover. In long dry periods, and particularly in pastoral country, selling early usually costs less than feeding through.
- Can I use this for a mixed mob?
- Run it separately for each class. A mob with dry cows, pregnant cows and weaners in it has very different requirements per head, and an average liveweight underfeeds the biggest animals and overfeeds the smallest, which is the opposite of what you want in a tight season.
- Does this replace a ration formulated by a nutritionist?
- No. This sizes the tonnage and the cost. A ration checks metabolisable energy, protein, fibre, minerals and the transition onto grain, which is what keeps stock alive and gaining. Use a feed test and professional advice for anything beyond short term maintenance feeding.
Use this with
Livestock Feed Calculator answers one part of the question. These pick up where it stops: Stocking Rate Calculator, Livestock Weight Gain Calculator, Hay & Silage Feed Calculator, Water Tank & Dam Volume Calculator and Livestock Gestation Calculator.
Where these figures come from
Figures and rules on this page follow Australian law and ATO guidance.
- Meat and Livestock Australia. Feed demand, drought feeding and cost of production tools for beef, sheep and goats
- NSW Department of Primary Industries. Drought feeding and management guides for sheep and cattle
- Agriculture Victoria. Feeding and managing livestock in dry seasons, including containment feeding
Livestock Feed Calculator produces an estimate for general information. It is not financial, tax, medical, legal or engineering advice. read the full disclaimer. Spotted a wrong number? Report it and it gets fixed. The form picks up this calculator and the inputs you used.