The stocking rate shows the total revised stock units (RSU) and estimated RSU per hectare for each enterprise. This may also be useful for assessing and comparing farm carrying capacities.
A revised stock unit (RSU) is defined as an animal with an intake of 6000 MJ ME intake per year. This is similar to a standard stock unit.
This enables the carrying capacity of dairy and non-dairy systems to be compared, based on feed intake.
The outputs shown for each enterprise are:
- By grazed area (RSU/ha): Stocking rate per hectare of the grazed area for each animal enterprise. Estimated as total RSU divided by grazed area (area of pastoral and fodder crop rotations, it excludes fodder crops grazed on crop blocks).
- By total farm area (RSU/ha): Stocking rate hectare of the total farm area. Estimated as total RSU divided by total farm area (RSU/ha). Total farm area is the total area declared as blocks and area not declared as blocks.
- Diet from pasture (%): The estimated percentage of diet from pasture. This is pasture consumed on all block types.
- Time on pasture (%): Estimated percentage of time spent on blocks - the proportion of time animals are grazing or eating supplements on pasture and/or crop blocks i.e. not on structures. For Dairy this is as a % of non-milking time and so excludes time in the dairy shed.
- Total (RSU): The total carrying capacity as RSU
Table 1. Example of Stocking for all Enterprises from OverseerFM
Stocking rates based on total farm area or grazed area tend to be similar unless there is another block type on the farm, such as crop, fruit or tree blocks. Hence, a farm with 50% trees may have a high stocking rate on the grazed area, but a low stocking rate based on total farm area. Cropping or fruit crop blocks that provide limited grazing can also result in higher estimated stocking rates per grazed hectare.
The stocking rate reported values provide a means to assess and compare carrying capacity (based on intake) between farms, and to assess the contribution of different animal enterprises to the farm carrying capacity. As RSU is intake based, further analysis of RSU can be undertaken using the ME reports.