Feed planning

Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s tools and guides for feed planning.

Feed budgeting resources

Have a look at these resources for more help with feed budgeting:

The FeedSmart tool was developed by the Red Meat Profit Partnership and Beef + Lamb New Zealand to make it easier for farmers to plan stock feeding. It takes the feed tables published in books such as “A guide to feed planning for sheep farmers” and makes them available at the click of the mouse, or the tap of your finger. FeedSmart works on any computer, tablet or Smartphone. It can be saved so that it works offline – anywhere, anytime.

The Guide to Feed Planning for Sheep Farmers (PDF, 3MB) explains key principles for feed planning and formal feed budgeting. It also contains an example feed budget template, as well as handy ‘look up’ tables for feed demand, feed quality, Dry Matter content and indicative pasture growth rates.

Courtesy of Scandrett Rural and Farmingsheep.co.nz

These downloadable templates can be used to do a basic feed budget, for all or part of your farm as appropriate. Download the spreadsheet (requires Excel) or print out the worksheets and fill in by hand:

Any feed budget is a forecast, and its important to monitor how it works out in reality. Body Condition Scoring of ewes and/or of cows is the best tool for you to make sure your feed budget is working as intended.

Body Condition Scoring can help you prioritise feed to the stock who need it. This way you will not waste any feed on stock who don’t need condition put on.

DairyNZ have provided some feed budgeting case studies from top performing dairy farms with a focus on lower ‘per unit’ cost of production to help you identify opportunities.

Hear from farmers and industry experts on the value of feed budgeting, and how to use it in your farm.

See this simple guideline thanks to our friends at Deer Industry NZ and AgResearch on how to measure your crops for winter and budget feed requirements for your stock. 

image of feed budgeting template