1. Pasture Calculations

2. How many kilograms of pasture in a paddock ?
Multiply the amount per hectare by the size of the paddock
eg. if a paddock is 2.8 hectares and has 2,685 kg of dry matter per hectare then it has 2.8 X 2,865 = 7518 kg DM to feed stock

3. Average Pasture Cover (APC) over several paddocks
Add the DM for each paddock together and divide by the total areas for each paddock.
Paddock
Area
Amount 1
2.2 Ha
6450 kg 2
3.8 Ha
7893 kg

4. Calculations
= = kgDM/Ha

5. Calculating daily growth rate
Work out the number of days between each date
Work out how much pasture has grown between each date
Divide the amount of pasture grown by the number of days

6. What are the daily growth rates for these paddocks
Area
(Ha)
Cover 1/8/11
kgDM/Ha
Cover 23/8/11 1
3.6
2395
3611 2
2.5
1943
2862

7. How many days difference ?
Ans: 23 – 1 = 22
How much pasture has grown?
Ans: = 1216 kgDM
How much pasture has grown per day?
Ans: kgDM/Ha
Total amount grown =
daily growth rate x total area
= x 3.6 Ha = kgDM

8. How to work out how much pasture is available to livestock
You have 450 sheep to feed in a 1 hectare paddock.
Pasture cover is 2000kgDM/Ha
Residual cover is 1,400kgDM/Ha
How much is available per sheep per day
Work out the difference between pasture cover and residual cover 2000 – 1400 = 600kg then divide by number of sheep /450 = 1.3kgDM

9. Distance to move a break fence
You have 200 cows feeding in a paddock of pasture 100 metres x 400 metres.
Pasture cover is 3829 kgDM/Ha
Residual cover is 1500 kgDM/Ha
1 hectare is 10,000 m2
Cows require 18 kg DM per day

10. Distance to shift a break fence
Work out the daily requirement for all cows = number of cows x kgDM/cow/day
= 18kg x 200
Work out the difference between cover and residual pasture
3829 – 1500 =
Work out how much feed you have in the paddock - multiply the answer above by the area of the paddock (100m x 400m = 40,000 m2 or __ Ha
Divide this number by the amount of feed all cows require per day. THIS WILL GIVE YOU HOW MANY BREAKS FOR THE PADDOCK

11. Divide the number of breaks per paddock by the total length of the paddock. This will give you the distance to move the break fence each day.

12. More Practice
Calculate the distance to shift a break fence if you have:
sheep needing 6 kg DM/day
2. A paddock 200m by 500m
3. Pasture Cover = 2300 kgDM/Ha
Residual cover = 1000 kgDM/Ha

13. Calculating the amount of silage in a pit
Dry matter of silage is 30% and 180kgDM/cubic metre
The dimension of the silage pit is 20m x 8m x 2m high