Dry matter intake planning estimator
Enter your cattle’s live weight and two intake percentages to calculate a daily dry matter range. The result shows kilograms of dry matter per animal per day, ready to compare with the feed offered and left in the trough. Keep the calculation current with your group’s measured weights and feed intake records.
How is the range calculated?
Multiply live weight in kilograms by each assumed intake percentage and divide by 100. A 500 kg animal with assumptions of 2% and 3% produces a scenario range of 10–15 kg dry matter/head/day. The endpoints reflect your chosen intake percentages for planning. Use the defaults to follow the calculation, then adjust the percentages based on the feed offered and left in the trough, forage quality, and the production stage of your group.
Why does actual intake differ?
Feed digestibility, forage quality, animal size and production stage influence intake. Availability, refusals, water, weather and health can also affect what an animal actually eats. Compare animals at a similar production stage and account for milk yield, growth, feed quality and health when choosing your percentages. Do not transfer a cattle percentage to sheep, goats or young calves as if this tool had modelled their requirements. Use a species-appropriate assessment for those animals.
How can I compare the scenario with records?
Weigh the feed offered and account for refusals over a clearly defined period. Convert each feed to dry matter using a representative analysis, add the dry matter amounts and keep the animal count beside the result. Keep group feed disappearance and animal count together, and use individual observations when comparing a single animal’s intake. Compare similar groups and periods. If the measured result differs from the scenario, investigate the assumptions and records rather than changing the diet immediately to make the numbers agree.
What is the next step?
Use the converter to translate a dry matter amount into the as-fed weight for a particular feed. Use the converted amount as one part of ration planning and review energy, protein, fibre, minerals and inclusion rates together. Use HerdMobile to keep animal details, feeds and ration records together with your own quantities and prices. Follow intake alongside the animal’s dated health observations and production records when reviewing the plan. Keep any treatment instructions with the animal’s health records and follow intake alongside those dated observations.
Sources and method
Compiled from open-access scientific sources.
- Meat & Livestock Australia, Beef cattle nutrition, revised March 2015, printed pp.16–17: intake as a percentage of live weight and effects of animal weight/feed digestibility.
- Further reading: NASEM (2021), Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle, 8th edition, covers full dairy ration and intake modelling beyond this percentage-of-weight calculation.