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Running sheep with cattle3/15/2023 grazing enough animals to fully utilise available pasture without depressing animal intake to below target requirements or grazing new plant growing points.The number of animals will depend on the nature of the enterprise (breeding and/or trading) but should be sufficient to ensure high utilisation of the pasture grown while maintaining the long-term sustainability of the pasture and the grazing system.Ī grazing management approach based on predicted seasonal plant growth patterns can help achieve optimal stocking rate and pasture utilisation. Identifying the stocking rate and stocking density that an enterprise can sustain to maximise green pasture utilisation is important in increasing the profitability of an enterprise. Identifying and implementing stocking rates Stocking density (head/ha) refers to the number of stock per hectare on a grazing area or unit at any one time and is usually used to describe the number of stock per unit area in a high-density grazing situation. A lactating cow may be equivalent to as much as 25 DSE. Applying this principle, one 50kg dry goat is equivalent to one DSE and one yearling steer is equivalent to about 8 DSE. Dry sheep equivalent and stocking densityĪ DSE is used as a method of standardising an animal unit and is the amount of feed required by a two year old, 50kg Merino wether to maintain its weight. The usual measure is dry sheep equivalents (DSE) per hectare (ha), however, this may also be expressed in terms of cattle per unit area, such as breeders (cattle) per ha or square kilometre. Stocking rate refers to the number of livestock on a paddock or a whole farm and is expressed as an indication of the number of a particular type of animal per unit area.
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