Stocking rate
Enter the hectares, what your pasture yields and the weight of your animals. It tells you how many fit without running the pasture down.
About this many fit
7.3 animals
- Animals per hectare
- 0.73
- AU per hectare (AU = 450 kg)
- 0.73
Check the inputs: a number is out of range.
This is a yearly average. In the dry season pasture yields far less: plan stocking for the lean season or store forage for it.
How it works
How we work it out
Usable forage per year equals hectares times yield times utilisation. What one animal eats in a year is its weight times its dry-matter intake times 365 days. We divide the first by the second.
Animal unit
One animal unit (AU) is a 450 kg cow. Converting to AU lets you compare pastures carrying animals of different weights: a 45 kg ewe is 0.1 AU.
Common questions
- How many cows per hectare?
- It depends on the pasture. On native pasture in dry areas it can be less than half a cow per hectare; on well-managed improved tropical pasture, two or three. That is why it is worth working out from your own pasture’s yield.
- How do I measure pasture yield?
- Cut the forage inside a one-square-metre frame at several spots, weigh and dry it, and scale it up to kilos per hectare.
- What happens if I overstock?
- The grass cannot regrow, weeds and bare soil appear, and next year the pasture yields less. Overgrazing ends up costing more than the extra animals earned.