Livestock Grazing & Stocking Rates

Grazing Management Livestock & Grazing Soil Health Resource Guide

December 10, 2019 by Green Cover Team

Livestock Grazing & Stocking Rates

With an array of highly palatable forage species in our arsenal, we can design a mixture that will provide premium quality forage to your animals throughout year. To best determine the quantity and quality of the forage, we suggest taking a forage sample. We have a detailed publication on our website with instructions on how to properly collect a forage sample from the field. To access this link as well as other helpful information, go to www.greencoverseed.com/classroom/forage

*Cool Season Forage Livestock Carrying Capacity With 50% Grazing Utilization*
Dry Matter Tons/Acre	AUD*/Acre	AUM**/Acre	CCUD†/Acre	CCUM††/Acre
1.5	58	1.92	38	1.28
2.5	96	3.21	64	2.14
3.5	135	4.49	90	2.99
*Warm Season Forage Livestock Carrying Capacity With 50% Grazing Utilization*
Dry Matter Tons/Acre	AUD*/Acre	AUM**/Acre	CCUD†/Acre	CCUM††/Acre
2	77	2.56	51	1.71
3	115	3.85	77	2.56
4	154	5.13	103	3.42
5	192	6.41	128	4.27
AUD (Animal Unit Days) - Number of days a 1000# animal can graze AUM (Animal Unit Months) - Number of months a 1000# animal can graze †CCUD (Cow-Calf Unit Days) - Number of days a cow-calf pair can graze* ††CCUM (Cow-Calf Unit Months) - Number of months a cow-calf pair can graze

Green Cover Team

This article was written by the Green Cover Team. Made up of farmers and cover crop specialists spread across multiple states, team members have hands-on experience in everything from row crop farming and ranching to animal husbandry, seed industry experience, and low-rainfall dryland production. Each year we run extensive cover crop trials on our farm in Bladen, Nebraska, testing hundreds of species, varieties and mixes to understand what actually works in the field. Together, we've spent decades helping growers in all 50 states find the right cover crop mix for their land.

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Livestock Grazing & Stocking Rates

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