5 Grazing Metrics Every Grazier Should Track

Do you want to run a profitable, productive and resilient grazing business? Here’s 5 grazing metrics you should be tracking.

About the Author

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Emily Mosely grew up in the Western Division of New South Wales, where her family operates a dynamic regenerative grazing business south of Cobar. With a deep passion for regenerative agriculture, she champions its role in supporting families, businesses, and rural communities. As a Grazing Solutions Advisor with MaiaGrazing and Atlas Carbon, Emily empowers graziers to make informed decisions and improve profitability through strategic grazing management. She and her partner, Lachlan, live on a property near Condobolin, where they enjoy the rural life, alongside their two dogs.

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How many of your grazing decisions are guesswork?

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Farmers lead busy lives, I know just how chaotic it can get with a never-ending list of jobs and complex factors to consider in every decision. Often our grazing management relies on a lot of gut feel, which is important, but data has a critical role to play in making those decisions more precise and in setting our businesses up for success in the long term. I’d like to walk you through the five grazing metrics that I believe are the most important to track and utilise in your grazing enterprise. By keeping an eye on these key indicators, you can move beyond guesswork and make confident, data-driven decisions that support both short-term productivity and long-term resilience.

The 5 Grazing Metrics you Should be Tracking:

1. Rolling Rainfall

Rolling rainfall is the cumulative rainfall received for the previous 12 months to today. It is a dynamic number that changes every day and with every rain event. The reason I think rolling rainfall is so valuable is because our moisture profile doesn’t reset at the stroke of midnight with a new calendar year. Rolling rainfall shifts our focus away from needing to achieve an ‘average’ rainfall year and tunes us in to the moisture we have actually received. Monitoring rolling rainfall is also one of the key indicators of potentially heading into a dry period. Rolling rainfall is one of the simplest and most powerful metrics every grazier should be aware of and tracking regularly.  

2. Changes in Stock Ratings & Feed Demand

We know that feed demands of livestock vary greatly throughout their productive and reproductive cycle. A simple way to track this is by applying a standardised metric like Dry Sheep Equivalent (DSE), Standard Animal Unit (SAU) or Livestock Unit (LSU), which rates the feed demand of various stock types and classes.  Another way to think of this is needing to supply 1kg of Dry Matter (DM) per DSE per day to maintain their body weight. We know that females have an uptick in feed demand during pregnancy and especially when they are lactating. But are you tracking how much that feed demand changes? A 70kg dry crossbred ewe jumps from 1.3 DSEs to 4.4DSEs when she is lactating. Similarly, a 600kg breeding cow more than doubles in feed demand from 8.3 DSEs to 17.8 DSEs. By tracking, recording and planning for changes in feed demand through the operational cycle we can ensure we are supplying optimum quality and quantity of feed at crucial times.  

3. Average Graze & Rest Period

Do you have a target rest period for your paddocks? If not, you may be wondering why this metric is important to know and use. We talk to our customers about the use of ‘pulse grazing’. Pulse grazing is a quick, dense stimulation of pasture with a long rest and recovery period. The rest and graze period will change in accordance with the rate of pasture growth – the aim is for quick moves with quick growth and slower moves with slow growth – to make sure we are utilising but not overgrazing pastures. Having a record of what your graze and rest periods are, will indicate potential areas for uplift – could we implement a longer recovery time and shorter graze period, or do we need to push the system a little bit harder to stimulate growth? Without the numbers and historical data, we don’t have a gauge for where we need to go. Incorporating rest into our grazing systems is one of the simplest ways to start to improve land health. Knowing the numbers and understanding the metrics will help you refine your approach and give you a target to aim for in your grazes.  

4. Graze Yields

Do you know how much dry matter or stock days your grazes are yielding? One part of the puzzle is estimating how much dry matter may be available in a paddock, but satellite imagery and even our own calculations can be off when compared to what stock actually yield from a graze. There will be dry matter available that is of little to no value to livestock, so what we pull out of a paddock as valuable feed may be less than the total estimate on offer. By quantifying the value of our grazes, we can fine tune our management and turn the dial on our enterprises. Are we underutilising some paddocks compared to others? This paddock yields more, why? What could I do to tickle the system in this paddock and increase the yields? Knowing and tracking this metric opens a world of questions and possibilities.  

5. Ultimately, your Stocking Rate vs. Carrying Capacity

Finally, the most crucial but often least utilised metric that every grazier should be tracking. Carrying capacity refers to the number of grazing animals that an area of land can sustain over an extended period without causing long-term degradation to the pasture or ecosystem. It depends on factors such as soil quality, rainfall, forage availability, and management practices. Stocking rate is the total grazing demand or number of animals utilising the area of land at any time.  

Both stocking rate and carrying capacity are dynamic metrics that are as expressed by how much one standard animal unit (DSE/LSU) eats in one day per hectare per 100mm. This can feel a bit abstract but once you start seeing the metric in practice it's a game-changer.

A good way to think about stocking rate and carrying capacity is like a restaurant.

• Carrying capacity is like the number of seats available in the restaurant - it determines how many people can dine comfortably without overcrowding or straining the staff and kitchen.

• Stocking rate is like the number of customers actually dining at any given time.

If too many people (animals) are in the restaurant (pasture) at once, food runs out, service slows, and the experience suffers - just like overgrazing depletes forage and harms land health. But if managed properly, both the restaurant and pasture can serve guests sustainably over time.

Ultimately, by continually focusing on matching our stocking rate to the benchmark carrying capacity of the landscape we ensure that we supply adequate pasture to the correct number of animals while building health in our ecosystems. Without an understanding and continual observation of stocking rate and carrying capacity we are driving blind in a lot of cases and leaving our businesses exposed to risk.

Tracking these five key grazing metrics isn’t just about gathering data—it’s about using that data to make smarter, more strategic decisions that will help your business thrive. By understanding your land’s capacity, managing grazing and rest periods, and monitoring animal performance, you’re setting yourself up for success, even in challenging conditions like drought. The more informed your decisions, the more resilient and profitable your grazing operation will be. Start tracking these metrics today, and you’ll be investing in the future sustainability of your farm, while maximising both productivity and profitability.

Are you keen to learn more about these metrics and how they could help boost productivity and profitability in your business? Book a demo of MaiaGrazing PRO.

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