Two acres of productive irrigated pasture and two acres of dry, compacted ground do not provide the same amount of forage.

Property

State or region Total grazeable acres

Number of paddocks Local seasonal forage production, lb dry matter per acre optionalUse an extension, NRCS or measured estimate. Without it, grazing days cannot be calculated responsibly.

Acreage for each paddock optional, comma separatedEnter one positive acreage for each paddock. Leave blank to divide the total acres evenly for the sketch.

The next three fields are recorded with your plan and change no number on this page. Pasture condition, water and soil, and residual height all genuinely affect how much a pasture grows, but this calculator has no model that turns them into pounds. They belong in the forage production figure you enter, which should already reflect them. They are kept here so a saved plan is recognisable and so you can see what the production figure was meant to represent.

Pasture condition record only Water and soil record only

Planned utilization, percent Desired residual height, inches record only

Planned rest period, days Months used for grazing

Horses and management

Number of horses Average weight, pounds

Hours turned out per day record only Pasture role This is the share of each horse's daily dry matter intake the calculator assumes comes from pasture. Primary multiplies demand by 1.0, Partial by 0.5, Exercise turnout by 0.1. Those numbers were previously hidden inside the menu.

Additional livestock demand, lb dry matter per day optional

Rotation timing

Seasonal pounds per acre cannot tell you how long to leave horses in a paddock. A season's growth divided by a day's demand answers how many grazing days the whole place holds over the season, not how long paddock three will carry three horses starting today. That depends on what is standing in it now. This page used to derive a graze period from the seasonal figure anyway, and quietly capped it at seven days. It no longer does. Give it one of the two figures below, or it will say rotation timing is unresolved.

Measured available forage, lb dry matter per acre option 1 What is standing in the paddock you are about to graze, minus the residual you intend to leave behind. A rising plate meter, a grazing stick or a clipped-and-weighed quadrat all give this. Target graze duration, days option 2 If you already know how long you intend to graze each paddock, enter it and the rest of the rotation is worked out from that instead.

Dry lot or sacrifice area available Supplemental hay provided

Seasonal, mud, drought, drainage or manure notes

How this is calculated

Forage supply, not acres alone, sets the limit.

This educational estimate uses two percent of bodyweight per day as total dry matter demand, then applies the pasture share you selected and adds other livestock demand. Available forage equals local dry matter production per acre times grazeable acres and your utilization percentage. Rest, regrowth, residual height, drought, irrigation, mud and winter dormancy still require observation.

If you do not know local forage production, contact your county extension or NRCS office. The tool will show demand but will not manufacture a grazing days result.

Sources

Guidance last reviewed August 24, 2026.

Pasture Stocking and Rotation Planner

Forage supply, not acres alone, sets the limit.

Sources