Feed budget, step by step
Interactive lesson: how much hay, grain, compound feed and minerals your animals need in a year, how much you produce yourself, what you buy and when.
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The whole lesson as text
1. What a feed budget is
A feed budget is a simple sum: requirement minus your own production gives your purchases.
- Three questions — The budget answers three questions: how much do I need, how much do I have, and how much do I buy, and when.
- By type of feed — Hay, grain and compound feed, meals and minerals are worked out separately. Hay can't be replaced by grain, and grain can't replace protein meal.
- The hay barn sets the numbers — In autumn, old farmers looked at the hay barn and the granary. If there was hay for four cows, the fifth went to the autumn sale.
- Reserve and losses — Add a 10–15 % reserve to the requirement for a long winter and drought, plus 5–10 % for losses in store.
Why: When the sum isn't done, winter ends with expensive hay bought in February and thin females before giving birth. In a temperate climate, winter without grazing lasts roughly 180 days.
- The budget has 4 steps: animals, requirement, production, purchases. At the end, spread it across the months.
- Do the sums by July and finish buying in by October.
2. Animals and months
It's not just how many animals you have, but how long they're on the holding.
- List the animals — Example holding: 12 laying hens and 2 rabbit does all year. A third of the flock is replaced in spring.
- Table chickens — 20 table chickens from May to July: 3 months, one summer batch.
- Goats and kids — 3 milking goats and a buck are on the holding all year. 4 kids are there from February to September, 7 months, and in autumn they are sold or slaughtered.
- Fattening pigs — 2 pigs from April to November: 7 months, from 25 kg to slaughter.
Why: Not every animal is on the holding all year. Table chickens are there for 3 months, a fattening pig 5–7 months, kids until autumn. If you count only heads, without months, the whole budget goes wrong.
- The example in this lesson is a family holding of roughly 1 ha (2.5 acres).
- The buck can also be borrowed, for the season only.
3. Requirement from the norms · Locked
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4. What you produce yourself · Locked
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5. Purchases and stocks · Locked
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6. When feed runs short · Locked
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