Livestock Husbandry tools

A 400–500 kg crossbred cow eats dry matter at about 2.5–3.0% of body weight — roughly 12–15 kg DM per day — split as forage and concentrate, plus extra for milk. As a rule of thumb feed about 0.4 kg of concentrate for every litre of milk on top of a maintenance ration. Use the Ruminant Ration Balancer to check energy (TDN), protein, Ca and P all line up.

DMI is the moisture-free weight of feed an animal eats per day, the fairest way to size a ration because green fodder is mostly water. Cattle eat 2.5–3.0% of body weight as DM, small ruminants 3–4%. Set DMI first, then convert to as-fed amounts and split forage to concentrate — the Dry Matter Intake Calculator does both.

Pick the cheapest combination of feeds that still meets the energy, protein and mineral targets for that class of stock. The Pearson square (Feed Formulation Calculator) blends two feeds to a target protein; the Ruminant Ration Balancer and Least-Cost Poultry Feed Formulation solve the full spec across many ingredients at the lowest cost per kg or quintal.

Roughly: a milch cow or buffalo 60–110 litres, a goat or sheep 4–8 litres, a grow-finish pig 6–12 litres, a layer hen 200–250 mL and a broiler about 1.8× its feed weight. Drinking water rises sharply in heat and with milk yield (add 4–5 L per litre of milk). The Livestock Water Requirement tool adds weather and a tank reserve.

THI combines air temperature and humidity into one heat-stress number. Dairy cattle start losing milk above THI ≈ 68 and suffer badly above 78–80. The formula is THI = (1.8×T + 32) − (0.55 − 0.0055×RH) × (1.8×T − 26), with T in °C and RH in %. The THI Milk-Loss tool turns that into litres and rupees lost and tells you if cooling pays.

Feed about 10% of body weight in good colostrum within the first 2–6 hours, with the first feed (≈2 L for a 40 kg calf) in the first 2 hours while the gut can still absorb antibodies. Then a second feed by 12 hours. The Colostrum Feeding and Calf Passive Transfer (IgG) tools size the feed and check the calf actually got enough immunity.

FCR is kg of feed per kg of weight gain — lower is better. Typical targets: broilers 1.5–1.7, fish 1.2–1.8, pigs 2.6–3.0, feedlot cattle 6–8. Compare your batch against the species benchmark in the FCR Calculator, and convert it to a cost of gain to see what each kg actually costs you.

On pasture, stocking rate depends on forage growth and animal units — typically 1 adult cattle unit per 0.4–1.0 ha of good improved pasture. In housing, allow about 3.5–4 m² covered plus 7–8 m² open per adult cow, and 0.04–0.10 m² per bird by type. The Cattle Stocking Rate and Dairy/Poultry housing tools size both correctly.

Vaccinate to the animal's age, not the calendar. Chicks get Marek's at the hatchery, then Lasota, IBD and boosters over the first weeks; calves get FMD, HS, BQ and Brucellosis on a dated schedule from birth. The Poultry and Cattle Vaccination Schedule tools print a dated calendar so no dose is missed.

This hub is animal husbandry — feeding, ration balancing, health, breeding, housing, aquaculture and manure: the day-to-day biology of keeping animals well. The Livestock Business & Enterprise hub is the commercial side: per-species ROI, enterprise budgets and whether a unit pays. Use husbandry tools to run the animals and the business hub to decide whether to scale.

Dissolved oxygen falls overnight and bottoms out before dawn; below ~3–4 mg/L fish stress and die. Match stocking and feeding to the pond's carrying capacity, and add aeration (typically 1 HP per 0.4–0.6 ha of intensive culture). The Pond Oxygen Budget, Carrying Capacity and Ammonia Toxicity tools predict the dawn crash and size the aerators.

An adult cow yields roughly 10–15 kg fresh dung a day; 25 kg of dung feeds about 1 m³ of biogas, enough for ~2 hours of cooking. A 2 m³ family plant typically needs the dung of 3–5 cattle. The Manure Production, Biogas Plant and Dung Cake Fuel tools turn dung into FYM nutrient value, gas and LPG-equivalent savings.