Cattle feed requirement planner
Daily and period feed needs and cost for a group of cattle from weight and dry-matter intake.
Expert check pending. This tool shows its formula, cited sources and assumptions with every result, and it's included in its role plan. A qualified expert in this trade hasn't signed the method off yet, so check the result against your own code, engineer or supplier before you rely on it.
Get this tool with its role plan
This is a premium tool. It comes with its role's plan: sign in, then add the role in Billing.
Comes with the farmer and rancher plan: every tool for the role, from $10.20 a month at the launch price.
- Your own numbers, worked out as often as you like
- The full feed plan you can print or save to My work
- 3 cited sources, linked, with the checks to make
- Every other tool for the same role, in the same plan
- A plain-words read of your result (a fuller AI read with the Bifrost AI add-on)
Included in these role plans
Example result · fictional numbers
What you get: feed plan
Worked out by this tool from its default inputs. Its role plan lets you run your own numbers, print the sheet and save it.
Feed 4,649 lb a day (4.6 bales); buy 230.1 tons (461 bales, 10 loads) for $32,215.91
- Dry matter per day
- 3,600 lb
- Feed as fed per day
- 4,091 lb (34.1 lb per head)
- Feed for 90 days
- 184.1 tons
- Feed cost
- $25,773 ($2.39 per head per day)
Feeding sheet
- Eaten per day, as fed
- 4,091 lb (34.1 lb a head)
- Put out per day with waste
- 4,649 lb (38.7 lb a head)
- Bales per day
- 4.6 at 1,000 lb
- Bales per week
- 33
- Wasted per day
- 558 lb at 12% waste
Also on the sheet
- Inventory and buying · 5 lines, starting with “Needed for 90 days with waste”
- Cost sheet · 4 lines, starting with “Feed eaten (the tool's figure)”
The plain-words read of this example
120 head eat 4,091 lb of feed a day; with 12% waste you put out 4,649 lb, about 4.6 bales of 1,000 lb. For 90 days plus a 10% reserve that is 230.1 tons; after 0.0 tons on hand, buy 230.1 tons in 10 loads for $32,215.91. Waste costs $3,514.46 over the period; feeder design makes the biggest difference. Weigh bales and test hay before you trust the bale count.
3 cited sources
- Winter Feed Estimator: A Practical Tool for the Beef Cow-Calf Producer (AN244) (UF/IFAS Extension)
- Hay Analysis Guide for Beef Cattle: Determining Winter Feed Needs (University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension)
- Choose the right hay feeder to reduce waste and cut cost (Kansas State University Research and Extension)
Plus 5 step-by-step checks, a print layout and a link that reopens it with your numbers.
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