Livestock Feed Ration Calculator

Work out livestock feed ration instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Livestock Feed Ration Calculator

Sets dry matter intake as a percentage of body weight, then converts it to an as-fed ration using the feed's dry matter content.

Formula

Feed ration

Dry matter intake = body weight x intake percentage; as-fed = dry matter intake / dry matter fraction of the feed

Worked example

With the default values below, Livestock Feed Ration Calculator returns As-fed ration per animal of 14.205. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Body weightaccepts 5–1,500 kg: 500 kg
Dry matter intakeaccepts 0.5–5: 2.5
Dry matter content of the feedaccepts 10–100: 88
Animalsaccepts 1–100,000: 40

Results

As-fed ration per animal: 14.205 kg/day
Dry matter intake per animal: 12.500 kg/day
Herd requirement per day: 568.18 kg
Feed for 30 days: 17,045.5 kg

Step by step

1Values used
2Feed ration
3As-fed ration per animal= 14.205 kg/day
4Dry matter intake per animal= 12.500 kg/day
5Herd requirement per day= 568.18 kg
6Feed for 30 days= 17,045.5 kg

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 3 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What intake percentage is typical?

About 2 to 2.5% of body weight for dry cows, rising to 3.5 to 4% in high-yielding dairy cattle.

Why convert to as-fed?

Feeds are weighed wet, and silage at 30% dry matter needs more than three times the weight of dry hay for the same intake.