The purpose of the Metabolic energy (ME) requirements report is to provide an indication of the estimated monthly ME requirements (MJ ME) of animal enterprises present on the farm.
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.
The calculated ME requirements are dependent on stock class, stock numbers and animal production.
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.
The farm below is showing a Total ME Requirement of 39,110,571 to sustain the Dairy Enterprise.
Table 1: Monthly Requirements and Intake - ME Requirements
This table is useful to use in conjunction with the Block Pasture & Diet (ME Source) - MJME/Month report to check that modelled requirements and the MJME/Month allocated is similar. If there is a big difference here (20%) an error will occur.
OverseerFM assumes that pasture ME intake is the difference between animal ME requirements less ME supplied by supplement and/or crops. The amount of supplement and crop brought in or fed out is supplied by the user.