A farmer in overalls feeding hay to a cow and a sheep in a timber-railed yard
Handy tools

Feed budget calculator

How much hay, silage or grain will you need? Enter your stock, the days to cover and your feed details to estimate tonnes and bales.

Your stock and feed

Dry-matter intake. Often about 2–3% for dry stock; growing, pregnant or milking stock can eat more.

From your feed test or docket. As a guide, hay and grain are often 85–90%, silage 30–50%.

Trampled, blown away or spoiled. Depends a lot on how you feed out.

Check with your supplier - bale weights vary a lot by size, crop and moisture. For bags or tonnes, enter the weight of one unit.

Your estimate

49 tof feed as fed
123bales of 400 kg
2bales a day

Where the feed goes

  • Eaten (dry matter) 76%
  • Moisture 14%
  • Wastage 10%
Dry matter per head per day
12.5 kg
Feed to put out per head per day
16.3 kg
Whole herd per day
817 kg
Dry matter eaten over the period
37.5 t
Link to this estimate

How we work it out

  • Eaten: live weight × daily intake % = kg of dry matter each animal eats a day, × head × days.
  • As fed: feed also holds water, so dry matter ÷ the feed's dry matter %, then topped up for wastage (÷ (1 − wastage %)).
  • Bales: total as fed ÷ the weight of one bale, rounded up.

This is a quick estimate of quantity only. It doesn't check energy, protein or minerals, and real intake changes with the weather, pasture still available, feed quality and each animal's stage. Talk to your vet, agronomist or livestock adviser before you plan a ration, and keep some extra on hand. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere. Comparing prices? The feed cost comparer ranks feeds per tonne of dry matter or per MJ. Need other units? Try the farm unit converter; words like dry matter or weaner are in the farm words glossary.

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