Find Your Stocking Rate!

“Don’t pray for rain if you can’t care for what you get” -R.E. Dickson. Though most of the United States is eager for the rain, let's talk about how the waiting time is great to make the most out of the rain. For the next month, we will be talking about pasture management and this week's topic will be stocking rates.

Important Note:

Carrying capacity is normally expressed as one Animal Unit (AU). A thousand-pound cow, with or without a calf at the side is one AU.

The first question that needs to be asked is how does know your stocking rate benefit your operation? Proper stocking rates will: 1) produce optimum animal performance; 2) make the ranch profitable; and 3) sustain or improve the range resource.

To begin to calculate the stocking rate of your land there are three things you must know:

1) How many acres of land do you have

2) The amount of forage that is available (ex: brush, grasses, shrubs):

The most accurate way to find the amount of forage available is to try and do this procedure at the end of the growing season to account for a year's worth of forage. Carrying capacity for a pasture is based on multiple spots and averaging it.

To begin to find it, sketch out a 9.6 square foot area (42 inches diameter circle or 37-inch square; we used a hula hoop for the most accuracy). Clip out the area and weigh the forage in grams once found to determine the percentage of dry matter harvested. Multiply the number of grams by the percentage of dry matter then multiply by 10. Once found, multiply the answer by .25 to get the actual pounds of forage allocated for consumption and finally divide 11,000 pounds by the previous answer to find the number of acres required by 1 AU.

If you’d just like a quick, but a less accurate estimate of your pasture dry matter, all you need is an estimate or measurement of the forage height. Once you have the average height in inches of the forage in your pasture, multiply it by 200. This is an average estimate of pounds of dry matter per acre per inch of forage height. For example, if your grass is 10 inches tall, multiply 10 x 200 to get 2000 lbs/acre (2 A.U.) of dry matter. If you want to get a little more precise, use the table to the right to estimate. Just replace 200 with the relevant number below based on the type and health of forage you have in your pasture.

3) The amount of forage you will allow your animals to graze. This will be the number of acres you will need for the livestock to graze.