Feed budgeting
Whether you are managing livestock during drought, flood recovery or after fire damage, doing a feed budget is crucial. This helps you understand your feed options and prepare before conditions worsen.
The amount and type of feeding required will depend on:
- the quality of the feed (energy and protein levels)
- the size, type, condition, stage of pregnancy or lactation of livestock
- what facilities or equipment are available
- past feeding history of livestock
- how the livestock have been impacted by recent conditions.
In dry times, pastures can deteriorate in both quality and quantity (kilograms of dry matter per hectare, or kg DM/ha). Once digestibility of dry feed falls below 55% stock will start to lose weight, regardless of how much feed they have. When dry feed becomes limiting, you can meet energy requirements by feeding out cereal grains and/or hay.
In floods or after fire, feed availability can also be limited. Dry standing feed, even after fire, may have value and should be assessed. Compare your options and cost-effectiveness using the Feed Cost Calculator. For help choosing the right mix, see our guide to balancing nutrition and cost.
Animal nutrition during drought
Dry times series: Animal nutrition
Read transcriptFeeding sheep
- Lactating ewes need at least 20% hay to maintain milk production
- Rapidly growing sheep and lambs, ewes in late pregnancy and lactation have higher requirements for energy and protein.
- Stock may need a protein supplement in some situations for growth and maintenance.
- It is best to feed lambs for production.
- Introduce cereal grains slowly over a period of 10-14 days to reduce the risk of acidosis.
Fat scoring to assess ewe condition enables you to fine-tune your feeding program. Ewes at fat score 3 will have minimal feed requirements as you can maintain them at this level. Ewes below fat score 2.5 have an increased risk of being dry. You can draft off these ewes and allocate them to better paddocks or supplementary fed to aid in joining.
The table below shows how much feed sheep need based on breeding condition and mixed feed combinations.
| Stock Type | Grain only (12ME) | Hay only (8.5ME) | 50:50 Grain : Hay | 80:20 Grain : Hay | Silage (35% dry matter 9ME) | Expected weight gain/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weaner (20kg) | 0.62 | 1.08 | 0.80 | 0.68 | 2.54 | 0.1 kg |
| Weaner (30kg) | 0.76 | 1.32 | 0.98 | 0.84 | 3.09 | 0.1 kg |
| Adult dry stock (50kg) | 0.65 | 0.99 | 0.79 | 0.7 | 2.37 | Nil |
| Ewes, last 6 weeks of pregnancy (50kg) | 1.1 | 1.68 | 1.33 | 1.18 | 4.02 | Nil |
| Ewe and lamb to one month (50kg) | Not suitable | 2.46 | 1.96 | 1.74 | 5.91 | Nil |
| Ewe and lamb to 2-3 months (50kg) | Not suitable | 1.77 | 1.41 | 1.25 | 4.26 | Nil |
Feeding sheep in dry times webinar
Feeding cattle
- Lactating cows need at least 20% hay to maintain milk production.
- Young cattle need a minimum level of 9% protein for growth.
- It is best to feed young cattle for production.
- Before introducing grain introduce hay first to minimise acidosis.
The table below shows how much feed cattle need based on breeding condition and mixed feed combinations.
| Stock Type | Grain only (12ME) | Hay only (8.5ME) | 50:50 Grain : Hay | 80:20 Grain : Hay | Silage (35% dry matter 9ME) | Expected weight gain/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weaner (250kg) | 3.5 | 5.5 | 4.5 | 4 | 14 | 0.25 kg |
| Yearling (330kg) | 4.4 | 7 | 5.5 | 4.8 | 16.8 | 0.25 kg |
| Adult dry stock (500kg) | 5 | 7.8 | 6.2 | 5.5 | 18.6 | Nil |
| Breeder, late pregnancy (500kg) | 6.1 | 9.3 | 7.4 | 6.6 | 22.4 | Nil |
| Breeder, lactating (500kg) | Not suitable | 12.5 | 9.9 | 8.8 | 29.8 | Nil |
For more advice, you can use the Feed Cost Calculator. It calculates and prepares protein, energy and other components for different mixes of livestock feeds
Feeding cattle in dry times
Advice for feeding and early weaning
Dry times series: Livestock care
Early weaning in dry times
Tips for feeding livestock
Things to remember:
- Acidosis (grain poisoning) is the biggest killer of confined sheep fed concentrates. It is important to do a gradual introduction to grain over a few weeks. Be careful transitioning from one grain to another. For example, barley to wheat where you are increasing the starch content. Take care when transitioning from one batch of feed to another, even if they are the same product, as variations do occur. Shandying the old and new feeds can help reduce acidosis risk as can the addition of rumen buffers to the ration.
- Remember that grain is generally low in calcium and high in phosphorus. You need to provide supplementary calcium in the ration (usually in the form of stock lime). This will help to avoid hypocalcaemia, in particular for late pregnant/lactating ewes and young growing stock.
- Vitamins A and E can become deficient in stock where there has been no access to green feed for over 6 months.
- When feeding cereal grains it is important to add 1 - 1.5% agricultural limestone and 0.5 - 1% salt to prevent calcium deficiencies.
- If you have the space and the infrastructure to feed in a confined lot, seek advice on what you need for confinement feeding based on the amount of stock.
Tips for supplementary feeding hay
The quality of your hay will have a significant impact on the grains and supplements you choose to feed.
Appearance is a poor indicator of the nutritive value of hay. Even grass hays that appear very similar can vary in protein content by two to three times. You can do a feed test on the hay to ensure you are meeting your livestock’s nutritive needs.
- Break open a hay bale or dig into the bale, get a good sample and scratch ‘n’ sniff. Hay of a sweet and pleasant smell will tend to have higher quality than hay with little or no smell. Hay with a dirt type smell is generally of very poor quality.
- Good quality hay should be green rather than yellow or brown. Keep in mind that some hays, particularly some varieties of clover, can cure to quite a dark colour.
- Hay should have a high leaf content for higher quality. Leaf is more digestible than stem and stalk (“stemmy” hay is likely to be low in digestibility). Hays cut late will have large amounts of seed heads and will be of lower quality.
- A sample of the hay when taken in both hands should be easy to break apart, this is a sign of good quality hay. It should not hurt your hands when you squeeze it, if it does it has been cut too late and will be of low nutrient content.
- Check your hay sample for awns. This can sometimes be an issue when feeding to stock and makes these hays unsuitable for processing and inclusion in feed mixes.
- There should be no visible mould (white or dark, matted patches in the hay) or other foreign material like dirt or sand. When opening hay look for dust as this can be an issue when feeding and is not desirable for confined feeding situations.
- Be aware of weed seed. Find out where your hay has come from if bringing it in. Most of the time it is extremely hard to find some weed seeds in hay. Try to feed your hay in only a few locations where you have easy access and visit frequently so that you are able to control any new and unusual plants.
- When feeding, avoid overhead hay racks as dust from the hay falling into eyes and face can cause health issues.
After flood or fire
Check hay for water damage or contamination after floods.
In post-fire conditions, hay may contain ash or be affected by smoke.
Monitor stock more frequently during recovery phases.
Contact Local Land Services NSW
We welcome your enquiries, feedback and comments. Contact our team
Use the search function to find information or resources from Local Land Services.
