Animal ME requirements are estimated using the monthly ME requirement sub-model. The monthly metabolic sub-model estimates the amount of energy animals require for maintenance, to produce milk, wool, velvet, for live weight gain and for pregnancy.
The total ME intake requirement each month is determined for each class of animals, based on the following attributes of those animals:
- sex
- age
- weight
- whether they are gestating or lactating.
ME requirements can also be affected by diet (different energy required to chew different foods) and area (i.e. grazing 5ha of crop vs 15ha of crop)
The ME requirements of each mob/herd within an enterprise (e.g. breeding ewes, lambs, rams) are then added together to give TOTAL animal ME requirements for the enterprise.