Question 1

What is Animal unit (AU)?

Accepted Answer

A 1,000 lb cow with calf is 1.0 AU. Bigger cows, bulls, and horses count as more. An animal unit is a way to compare different livestock on the same pasture. The usual baseline is a 1,000 lb cow with a calf at side = 1.0 AU, eating about 26 lb of forage dry matter a day. A 1,400 lb pair is about 1.4 AU. A mature bull is about 1.35. A mature horse or donkey is about 1.25. Sheep and goats are a fraction of an AU. Those factors are called animal-unit equivalents (AUE). If you stock “one cow per three acres” but your cows weigh 1,400 lb, you are stocking heavier than a 1,000 lb table assumed. Convert to AU first, then talk acres.

Question 2

What is Animal-unit month (AUM)?

Accepted Answer

How much forage one animal unit eats in a month. Used to size a grazing period, not just a head count. An animal-unit month is the forage one AU eats in 30 days — roughly 780–800 lb of dry matter for that 1,000 lb pair. If a pasture has 4,000 lb of usable dry matter, that is about 5 AUM. Five 1.0 AU pairs could graze a month, or 10 pairs could graze two weeks, before you eat the same pile of grass. AUM is the better unit when the grazing season is short or the class of stock is mixed.

Question 3

What is Stocking rate?

Accepted Answer

How many animals a pasture can carry for a set number of days without eating it into the dirt. Stocking rate is animals (or AU) per acre for a grazing period. Carrying capacity is what the land can support in a normal year. Stocking density is how tight they are in one paddock right now. The honest formula is usable forage ÷ (daily intake × days). Usable forage is not total growth — you leave a share standing (harvest efficiency). A common mistake is using a neighbor’s “cow per X acres” on a different kind of grass, a different cow size, or a drought year.

Question 4

What is Harvest efficiency?

Accepted Answer

The share of standing forage the herd is actually allowed to eat. The rest is leftover, trampled, or never got a bite. Harvest efficiency is the percent of forage that ends up in an animal. It is not 100%. “Take half, leave half” of the grass that’s standing today is 50%. On native range, NRCS often plans closer to 25% of annual production because not all growth is there at once. Conservative use of a clipped sample is often 30–40%. If you already entered “available” forage (what you intend to graze), set efficiency to 100% or you will double-discount.

Question 5

What is Dry matter (DM)?

Accepted Answer

The part of feed that isn’t water. Cows eat dry matter. You buy as-fed pounds. Dry matter is feed with the water imagined gone. Cured grass hay is often 88–93% DM (7–12% moisture). A 1,000 lb bale at 88% DM is 880 lb of actual feed. Intake tables (2.2% of body weight, and so on) are on a dry-matter basis. Divide by DM% to get the as-fed hay you have to put in the ring. Balage and wet hay have a lot more water. If you skip the moisture correction you will run out early.

Question 6

What is As-fed?

Accepted Answer

The pounds you actually haul and dump — water included. Not the same as dry matter. As-fed is the weight of the hay, grain, or silage as it sits on the truck. It includes moisture. If a cow needs 26 lb of dry matter and the hay is 88% DM, she needs about 30 lb as-fed that day, before waste. That’s the number you shop with.

Question 7

What is TDN (total digestible nutrients)?

Accepted Answer

A simple energy score for feed. Compare hay and cubes on TDN, not the price of the bag. TDN is a catch-all energy number, as a percent of dry matter. Average grass hay might test in the low-to-mid 50s. Better hay and many cubes sit higher. Corn is much higher. Cost per pound of TDN = $/ton ÷ (2,000 × DM% × TDN%). A $70 bale of 48% TDN hay can be more expensive energy than an $90 bale of 58% TDN hay. TDN is not protein, and it is not a full ration. It is the fair way to compare two feeds on energy.

Question 8

What is Feeder waste and storage loss?

Accepted Answer

Hay you paid for that never got eaten — spoiled in the stack or dragged out of the ring. Two different leaks. Storage loss is spoilage before you feed (barn is a couple percent; uncovered on the ground can be ugly). Feeding loss is what cows pull out, bed in, or refuse in the feeder. Cone or skirted rings can run around 6%. A plain bale ring is often ~10%. Open-bottom or no feeder can be 25–45%. Those percents apply to the hay you offer, so the math is divide by (1 − loss), not “add 10%” on a napkin.

Question 9

What is Round bale density?

Accepted Answer

How tightly the baler packed it. Same 5×4 bale can be 700 lb or 1,200 lb. Weight = π × (diameter/2)² × width × density. Density is pounds per cubic foot. Dry grass hay is often around 10 lb/ft³. Wetter or tighter bales run higher. Straw is lighter. Calling every round bale “a thousand pounds” will lie to a hay budget. Weigh a load when you can. Until then, measure diameter and width.

Question 10

What is Dressing percent?

Accepted Answer

Hanging weight divided by live weight. A 1,200 lb steer at 62% dresses 744 lb, not 1,200. Dressing percent = hanging (carcass) weight ÷ live weight. Fed beef often lands around 60–64%. Dairy and very light cattle can dress less. Gut fill, mud, and hide change it. That hanging weight is still not what goes in the freezer. Bone, fat trim, and cutting take another cut (see take-home yield).

Question 11

What is Hanging weight?

Accepted Answer

The carcass after slaughter, before it is cut and wrapped. How most freezer beef is priced. Hanging weight is the carcass on the rail: live animal minus hide, head, guts, and blood. Processors often quote freezer beef on this number. If you pay $4.50/lb hanging on a 744 lb carcass, that is $3,348 before the cut-and-wrap fee, and it is not 744 lb of steaks. Take-home boxed meat is commonly ~60–70% of hanging.

Question 12

What is Take-home yield?

Accepted Answer

Packaged meat after cutting. Often about two-thirds of hanging weight. Take-home is what you actually carry out: steaks, roasts, burger, after bone and trim. A common planning number is about 65% of hanging weight. A leaner, bone-in request will change it. 1,200 lb live × 62% dress × 65% take-home ≈ 484 lb in the freezer. Split across a family, that is the number that matters, not live weight.

Question 13

What is Calf crop?

Accepted Answer

Calves weaned divided by cows exposed. 85% means you sold 0.85 calf per cow, not one. Calf crop (weaning percent) is calves weaned ÷ cows exposed to a bull × 100. Open cows, dead calves, and late losses all show up here. A breakeven that assumes “every cow weans a 550 lb calf” is lying if the calf crop is 85%. Payweight per cow is weaning weight × calf crop.

Question 14

What is Necessary calf price?

Accepted Answer

The calf price that covers what it cost to keep the cow, after cull credit, per hundredweight sold. Necessary calf price is (annual cow cost − cull income per cow) ÷ pounds of calf sold per cow. Multiply by 100 for $/cwt. Pounds sold per cow is weaning weight × calf crop, not the heaviest steer in the bunch. If you spend $900/cow and sell 468 lb of calf, you need about $1.92/lb ($192/cwt) before you made a dime. That is the TAMU first-cut identity, not a 40-input ranch budget.

Question 15

What is 205-day weaning weight?

Accepted Answer

Weaning weight corrected to 205 days of age and a mature dam, so calves can be compared fairly. Calves weaned the same day are not the same age, and a 2-year-old heifer’s calf should not be punished next to a 6-year-old cow’s calf. BIF formula: ((actual WW − birth weight) ÷ age in days × 205) + birth weight + age-of-dam additive. Official window is 160–250 days of age. A ratio (100 = contemporary-group average) is how that weight is used to pick replacements.

Question 16

What is Age-of-dam adjustment?

Accepted Answer

Pounds added to a 205-day weight so young and old cows are compared to 5- to 10-year-olds. BIF adds pounds to calves from 2-, 3-, 4-, and 11+-year-old dams. Mature 5–10 year olds get 0. Example: a 2-year-old’s bull calf gets +60 lb; a 4-year-old’s heifer gets +18 lb. Those additives are why a light calf on a first-calf heifer can still look honest next to the old cows.

Question 17

What is Cattle gestation?

Accepted Answer

Beef charts use 283 days from breeding or AI to calving. Real cows land in a window around that. Most beef gestation charts (Angus, Hereford, UF/IFAS) use 283 days . Dairy is often a few days shorter. Brahman and some Continentals run longer. Bull calves average about a day more than heifers in some datasets. Plan a window, not a Tuesday. A 279–287 day band around 283 is common talk. If you are dating a whole calving season, back 283 days off the first and last calf to get bull-in and bull-out.

Question 18

What is Cows per bull?

Accepted Answer

How many cows one bull can cover. Yearlings cover fewer than a mature bull in a big pasture. A common pasture thumb is about 25–30 cows per mature bull . Yearlings often 15–20. In a small trap, a good mature bull may cover more. A short breeding season needs more bulls because every cow has to hit on fewer cycles. This is not a breeding-soundness exam. Lame, old, or overheated bulls do not care what the table said.

Question 19

What is Heart girth (tape weight)?

Accepted Answer

A tape estimate of live weight when you don’t have a scale: girth² × length / 300. Heart girth is the circumference just behind the front legs, over the withers, in inches. Body length is shoulder point to pin bone. The Schaeffer formula: weight (lb) = girth² × length / 300 . It is a pasture estimate, not a sale-barn scale. Mud, hair, and gut fill still fool it, but it beats guessing.

Question 20

What is Doyle log rule?

Accepted Answer

Southern mill favorite: board feet = (D − 4)² × L / 16. Small logs look worse than they saw out. Doyle is a log scale used a lot in the South. D is small-end diameter in inches (inside bark). L is length in feet. Board feet = (D − 4)² × (L / 16). Doyle underestimates small logs and is closer on bigger ones. A mill may still pay on Doyle even if Scribner or International would tally more. Always ask which rule they are using.

Question 21

What is Scribner log rule?

Accepted Answer

Another board-foot table. Usually taller than Doyle on small pine. Scribner is an older diagram rule. Mills often use a printed table. A common approximation is (0.79D² − 2D − 4) × L/16. International ¼-inch is a third scale that assumes less kerf. If a buyer quotes Scribner and you estimated Doyle, the numbers will not match. Compare apples to apples.

Question 22

What is Board-foot?

Accepted Answer

A volume unit for lumber: 1 inch × 12 inches × 12 inches. Logs are estimated with Doyle or Scribner, not a tape measure of boards. One board-foot is 144 cubic inches of wood (1×12×12). A thousand board-feet is an MBF, how stumpage is often priced. Standing trees are not measured in finished boards. You measure diameter and length, then run a log rule. That estimate is what a logger and a landowner argue about.

Question 23

What is Acre-foot?

Accepted Answer

One acre of water one foot deep. About 325,851 gallons. How pond treatments are often dosed. An acre-foot is 43,560 cubic feet of water — an acre of surface one foot deep. Multiply surface acres by average depth, not the deep hole by the dam. People blow pond treatments by overestimating size. Measure length and width, guess average depth honestly, then apply the label rate per acre-foot. The label is the law, not a website.

Question 24

What is Last frost date?

Accepted Answer

The spring date after which frost is unlikely, and the fall date it usually returns. A probability, not a promise. A frost date is a climate average, not a forecast. Sources quote 30% or 50% probability from NOAA 1991–2020 normals. A 30% last-spring-frost date means there is still about a 3-in-10 chance of frost after that. For Huntsville / Walker County, a conservative 30% pair is around March 10 and November 18. The median is a little kinder. Warm crops go out after the last frost; fall brassicas count backward from the first freeze.

Question 25

What is Seeding rate?

Accepted Answer

Pounds of seed per acre. Broadcast is usually higher than a drill. The bag is the last word. Seeding rate is lb/acre of that mix. White clover might be 3–5 lb broadcast. Oats and rye are often 80–100. Brassicas are light, 5–8 lb. A drill can cut those numbers. Buy by the acre: acres × lb/acre ÷ bag size. Inoculate legumes. A soil test beats a pretty seed blend if the pH is wrong.

Question 26

What is Custom hire?

Accepted Answer

Paying someone else to cut, rake, and bale by the acre or the bale instead of owning the iron. Custom hire is a written (or handshake) rate for the work: dollars per acre, per bale, or per hour. Add that up, divide by tons, and you have your making cost without pretending a $90,000 baler is free. Compare that to delivered hay $/ton. If you do it yourself, count fuel, wrap, and your time. Equipment payments belong in the pile too if you want an honest number.

Ranch glossary

A

Acre-foot

Age-of-dam adjustment

Animal unit (AU)

Animal-unit month (AUM)

As-fed

B

Board-foot

C

Calf crop

Cattle gestation

Cows per bull

Custom hire

D

Doyle log rule

Dressing percent

Dry matter (DM)

F

Feeder waste and storage loss

H

Hanging weight

Harvest efficiency

Heart girth (tape weight)

L

Last frost date

N

Necessary calf price

R

Round bale density

S

Scribner log rule

Seeding rate

Stocking rate

T

Take-home yield

TDN (total digestible nutrients)

W

205-day weaning weight