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How much do my animals eat?
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How much forage do I have?
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To properly answer this question one should use the
principle of an Animal Unit Month (AUM).
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What’s an AUM? An AUM is the amount of
air dried forage required to sustain a 1000 pound
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cow and her calf for one month. It is the best unit to use when planning
pasture management
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strategies. The
following table lists common animals and their AUM equivalents.
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Animal
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AUM
Equivalent
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Animals/AUM
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Air
Dry Forage in Pounds
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Mature Goat
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0.15
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6.5
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120
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Mature Sheep
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0.2
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5
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160
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1000 lb Cow with Calf
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1
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1
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800
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Mature Horse
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1.25
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0.75
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990
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Mature Bison Bull
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1.5
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0.5
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1180
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How do I measure my pasture’s production? One way to measure
pasture
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production is to clip and weigh the amount of forage
production in a hoop or square. Clip
and weigh
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the production in grams using a 26.25” X 26.25” inch
square or a hoop with a circumference of 93”.
The
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result will give you grams per hoop or square. Simply multiply that number by 20 to
convert grams per
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hoop to pounds per acre.
A worksheet is provided on the back side of this handout to work
through the
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numbers. A table is
also provided to convert fresh cut forage to an air dried equivalent.
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