ag (1127) - Lettuce: kgDM

using the data we've collceted, we calculated the the amount of dry matter (kgDM) in the two paddocks (1.8ha of ryegrass, 1.5ha of lucerne)

dry matter is everything in the plant that is not water (plants are 70-80% water) so this includes vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, sugars, oils, etc.

for both, we calculated approx how long each paddock would be able to feed 20x 500kg beef cows (leaving approx 15cm of the pasture leftover to regrow)

i cant rememember fully coz i dont have the sheet, it was collected.

but we had to match up our average (-15 for reserve) with a graph that deteremined the DM in each pasture plant (depending on density)

after that.. we know that beef cows eat approx 3.5% of their weight a day, so we had to work that out.. and put the total DM we get over the required DM

the result was the amount of days that the paddock could last.

thing was that not all of the pasture would be eaten though, much of it would be trampled. so these readings arent always as accurate as they can be