Sheep grazing a wide green paddock in Southland, with hills and mountains behind
Handy tools

Kaiwhakarite huringa kai

Set your round length and see how much to graze each day: hectares and paddocks a day, the area per head, and a day-by-day plan to print for the shed wall.

Southland (Murihiku) · Whakaahua: Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0

The round is the days the mob takes to graze every paddock once. Many farms lengthen it as growth slows in late autumn and winter, and shorten it in spring.

Each day

4.00 hato graze a day
1.33paddocks a day
Average paddock
3.00 ha

Day-by-day plan

DayPaddock
11 and 2
23
34
45 and 6
57
68
79 and 10
811
912
1013 and 14
1115
1216
1317 and 18
1419
1520
1621 and 22
1723
1824
1925 and 26
2027
2128
2229 and 30
2331
2432
2533 and 34
2635
2736
2837 and 38
2939
3040

Paddocks are numbered in the order you graze them. Write your own paddock names next to the numbers on the printout.

Link to this plan

How we work it out

Area a day = grazing area ÷ round length. Paddocks a day = paddocks ÷ round length (when that is under one, each paddock lasts round length ÷ paddocks days). Area per head = area a day ÷ mob size. It assumes paddocks of similar size and one mob; real paddocks differ, so walk the farm and adjust. To set the round length from your pasture covers, use the pasture cover and feed wedge; to check feed demand, the stock units calculator. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.