Stocking Rate & Rotational Grazing Planner
Enter your area, rainfall, pasture condition and animals to see your stocking rate in DSE, how it compares with your land, how to rotate paddocks, and how much stock water you need.
How many animals can your land carry? It depends on rainfall, pasture quality and what you keep, and the usual answer is “it depends”. This planner gives you a starting number. It converts your animals to dry sheep equivalents (DSE), compares them with a conservative carrying capacity for your rainfall and pasture, then works out a rotation: how many paddocks, how big, how long on each and how long each rests. It also totals daily stock water.
Stocking Rate & Grazing Planner
A DSE is the feed a 50 kg dry sheep needs to maintain itself. Other animals are scaled from that: a cow is roughly 8 to 12 DSE, a horse about 10. Carrying capacities below are conservative starting estimates for rainfed pasture. Your local Local Land Services, Department of Agriculture or advisor can refine them for your soils and species.
Your animals in DSE: —
Carrying capacity of your land: —
Stocking pressure: —
Land per DSE: —
If you are over capacity: —
Rotation: days on each paddock: —
To move every few days: —
Stock water needed: —
Full guide, more detail, and a printable version at https://hollyshomestead.com.au/tools/stocking-rate-grazing-planner.html
How It’s Worked Out
Each animal type has a typical DSE rating: a dry sheep is 1, a ewe with lambs about 2, a goat about 1, a dry cow or steer about 8, a cow with a calf about 12, a horse about 10 and a pony about 6. Your total DSE is compared with a carrying capacity taken from rainfall and pasture condition, from under 1 DSE per hectare on poor, low-rainfall country to 16 on dense, well-watered improved pasture. If you are over, the planner shows how much hay would cover the gap and how much extra land you would need.
Rotational grazing divides the area into paddocks. If a paddock needs 45 days of rest and you have five paddocks, each can be grazed for about 11 days. Set the days you want to move stock and the planner shows how many paddocks you need. More, smaller paddocks mean shorter grazing and longer rest, which usually grows more grass from the same land. See rotational grazing at property scale for the method.
Stock Water
Daily water use is a typical summer figure: about 5 litres for a sheep or goat, 8 for a ewe with lambs, 40 for a dry cow, 55 for a cow with a calf, 40 for a horse and 25 for a pony. In hot weather it can double. Plan trough and tank capacity for several days, and see the Tank & Water Budget Simulator to check your tank covers it.