For the purposes of this article, we are using AE / DSE as our animal unit rating example, but you can choose which ever unit rating you wish through your farm settings.
Check out our full guide to Animal Units to learn how to select the default unit for your operation.
AgriWebb makes it simple for you to plan your grazing rotation by tracking your Paddock grazing intensity, Grazing days remaining and your stocking rate.
On the Mobile App, select the cog symbol to show the map settings. Under insights, select change to see the different options.
On the Web App, go to Insights in the top left corner.
When planning your next rotation, consider the following:
Grazing days remaining
This is calculated by AgriWebb based on Feed on Offer (FOO), Pasture Growth Rate, Stocking Rate, Planned Supplemental Feed and Target Residual set by users. This can be useful to help identify which mobs need to be moved next. To read about how grazing days remaining are calculated, see below.
Days Empty (Spelling Period)
This is useful to help identify which paddocks your mobs should be moved to next, by quickly identifying which paddocks have been spelled the longest.
Feed on Offer (FOO)
This is updated either manually by users or automatically via the CiboLabs integration. This is useful to help identify which paddocks your mobs should be moved to next, by quickly identifying which paddocks have the most feed on offer.
Establishing a Grazing Plan
STEP 1 - Start by adding Animal Unit Rating when you add the livestock for the first time or by updating that rating from their mob information card. In AgriWebb you are able to choose between different units such as Dry Sheep Equivalent (DSE), Livestock Units (LSU), Adult Equivalent (AE), etc as your preferred standard livestock measurement unit.
Learn more about Updating Animal Unit Ratings
STEP 2- Enter your records for Feed On Offer (FOO), Pasture Growth Rate, and Target Residual to avoid over grazing your pastures.
Make sure you check out our article on Feed on Offer to learn how to quickly and easily update FOO, Pasture Growth Rates and Target Residual.
Using the Grazing Planner
Note this is only available for mob management subscriptions and not individual management.
The Grazing plan can be updated at any time, or each time livestock are moved from paddock to paddock.
Create a Grazing Plan when moving livestock to a new paddock. Click NEXT to fill out the required details, press Save to finalise your movement.
This information is then used to determine the number of grazing days remaining for each paddock and your stocking rate. This data can be assessed through the Paddock Grazing Intensity and AE / DSE load by Paddock reports to show performance across the entire farm and to develop a comprehensive feed budget.
These reports are accessed from the Web App, and by selecting the Reports tab from the navigation panel to the left.
Paddock Grazing Intensity report
Select Paddock grazing intensity from the Reports section.
Livestock load (DSE Day), Livestock load (DSE Day/ha), Number of days grazed, days empty and grazing percentage across all your paddocks will be displayed here.
Note "Grazing %" is a calculation based on the number of days grazed within the selected date period, expressed as a percentage.
AgriWebb's calculation for Grazing % is as follows:
Days Empty + Days Grazed = Total Days in Period
Number of Grazed Days / Total Days = Grazing %
DSE load by Paddock report
Select DSE load by paddock from the Reports section.
The opening, closing and average stocking rate from across all your paddocks is displayed here. At the top of the page toggle across to view Stocking Rate (ha/DSE), Rainfall (DSE/ha/100mm) and the Cumulative Stocking Load information from your operation.
See more on these reports here:
Paddock Grazing Intensity Report
How are Grazing Days Remaining Calculated?
In the mob platform, the following data points are required to calculate how many grazing days are available in a paddock:
Current FOO (feed on offer)
Target Residual
Animal Units (DSE/AE/LSE)
Pasture Growth Rate
AgriWebb's calculation for Grazing Days Remaining is as follows:
(Current FOO) - (Target Residual) / (Consumption Rate*) - (Pasture Growth Rate)
Target
Consumption Rate
The consumption rate is calculates from the animal units recorded against the mob. For reference, AgriWebb uses the industry standard of 1 DSE = 1kg. However, you can see all values for animal units for different countries by logging into the Web App and heading to Account > Farm Settings > Animal Units. Further details can also be found in our article on Animal Units.
Pasture Growth Rate
If the value for pasture growth rate is not updated, it defaults to 0 and the above calculation for Grazing Days Remaining will only use the value from the FOO field.
In the IAM platform, there is slightly more flexibility to calculate stocking loads and units (which will arrive in the mob platform in time) which are explained in our article on Animal Units (Individuals).