Feed analysis
How much extra energy stock burn getting their feed — least when barn-fed (housed), rising across flat, rolling and steep country as they walk and harvest more.
None — sheltered, dry or mild.
Cold— a cold, wet or windy spell (a raw winter’s day, roughly below 10 °C with rain or wind), or shorn stock in cool weather.
Severe — a cold storm: driving wind + rain, a hard southerly, near or below freezing, or off-shears caught in it.
Cold stress is about wind and wet, not the temperature reading. NZ standards leave it out for sheltered stock — turn it on for exposed or wintered animals.
The mature size of this animal’s line — a heavier-maturing line (ram, bull, dairy-beef) is leaner and cheaper to grow per kg than a lighter one (ewe, heifer) at the same weight.
NZ-typical defaults. For results tuned to your farm, edit any feed or import a lab report below.
Grazed to appetite — eats ~1.71 kg DM/d
Minerals (%DM) ▾
Protein quality (advanced) ▾
How this feed’s protein splits in the rumen — degradable (feeds the rumen microbes) vs bypass (digested further down). It varies with source and processing and changes the protein result. Defaults follow AFRC / Feedipedia; set your supplier’s figures here.
Fat, starch & sugar (advanced) ▾
Crude fat (ether extract) lowers fermentable energy, so a fattier feed builds less microbial protein — it does change the result. Starch vs sugar/WSC show where the energy sits (nutrition detail) and don’t. Leave blank to use the cited value.
We currently read Hill Labs and Eurofins lab reports.
Feed prices ($/kg) ▾
Your prices drive the cheapest-way-to-close-the-gap suggestion. Saved on this device.
Limited by energy, and she's already eating to appetite — more feed just displaces grazed feed. Lift the ration's energy density (a higher-ME feed in place of some grass) to grow faster.
Intake is at appetite — physical fill isn't the limit, so more feed substitutes for grazed pasture rather than lifting total intake.
From the pasture analysis. DCAD elevated — worth watching for springers near calving.
Facial eczema, trace elements & milk-fever by stock class| Mineral | Required | Supplied | Add |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calcium | 13.5 g | 13.7 g | ok |
| Phosphorus | 6.5 g | 6.5 g | ok |
| MagnesiumMg uptake cut ~11% by high pasture potassium (3.2% DM K) — requirement raised to suit. | 2 g | 4.1 g | ok |
| Sodium | 1.2 g | 4.7 g | ok |
Required scales with the animal and production you set above — a dry animal needs far less than a milking one. Some lab reports quote one generalised figure for a producing animal, so their requirements can read higher than these for low-production stock.
Carbon-dioxide equivalent (CO₂e)
Enteric methane (what the animal belches), shown as carbon-dioxide-equivalent using the NZ inventory method.
How efficiently this diet turns feed into product — lower is better.
No single feed closes this gap on its own within what she can physically eat. She's eating to her gut-fill ceiling, so extra feed mostly displaces grazed pasture rather than adding to it. The lever is higher feed quality or a lower target, not more supplement — see the limiting factor above for what's holding her back.
Enter your mob size to scale the diet to a whole-mob feed total and cost, and see how long your stored feeds last.
Rumen & protein breakdown (RDP, FME, microbial protein)▾
Good energy concentration.
Energy available to rumen microbes to build microbial protein.
Diet fibre 44% DM is in the healthy range for rumination.
Total dietary protein (N × 6.25). It splits below into rumen-degradable and bypass protein — the lines below show how much the animal actually captures.
Rapidly fermentable energy (grains, maize). High starch with low effective fibre is the main driver of rumen acidosis (SARA).
Water-soluble carbohydrate — readily available energy (fresh pasture, molasses, beet).
Crude fat — energy-dense; basal pasture/forage runs ~2–4%. Keep total diet fat under ~6–7% DM.
Plenty of degradable protein, but microbial protein is capped by fermentable energy — more energy (e.g. grain) would capture it.
Made in the rumen — here limited by fermentable energy.
Undegraded feed protein absorbed past the rumen.
Microbial + bypass protein available to the animal.
Results assume healthy stock — they don't account for internal or external parasites, disease, or trace-mineral deficiencies, any of which can hold performance below what the diet allows. Built on established AFRC/CSIRO nutrition science — a decision-support guide, not a substitute for a nutritionist or vet.
What a feed analysis tells you
A feed budget tells you how much to put in front of stock. A feed analysis tells you what that feed can actually do — whether your animals can hit the growth or milk you're after, what's holding them back, and what it'd take to close the gap. Feedwise works it through the way a nutritionist would: energy, protein, and how much the animal can physically eat, whichever runs out first.
Common questions
What's the difference between a feed budget and a feed analysis?
A budget is about quantity — kilos of dry matter, days of feed ahead. An analysis is about whether that feed actually meets the animal's requirements for the target you've set. You want both.
How does Feedwise decide what is limiting performance?
It uses the "law of the minimum": it works out what energy allows, what protein allows, and how much the animal can physically eat, then reports the smallest of the three — because that is what is really capping performance.
Which animals and feeds does it handle?
Sheep, cattle, deer and goats — across stock classes (growing, lactating, pregnant and maintenance), including breeding ewes, beef (suckler) cows, breeding hinds and dairy goats. Deer are modelled with their seasonal intake and growth cycle. You build the diet from pasture, supplements, crops and minerals.
I don't know how much my ewe or beef cow is milking — can I still use it?
Yes. Pick the ewe or beef cow, choose 'from the lambs / calf at foot', and enter what you can see — the lambs (or calf), their weight and how fast you want them growing. Feedwise works out the milk she needs to make, flags if that's beyond her realistic peak, then sizes the diet to make it.
Where do the numbers come from?
A deterministic engine built on published animal-nutrition standards — not a guess and not AI. You can see every coefficient and its source on the How it works page.
Is it a substitute for a nutritionist?
No — it is decision support to sense-check your thinking. Confirm important decisions with your nutritionist or vet.