Forage & Hay Planning User Guide
Size the herd's hay for the year by cutting, test it, cost it per calorie, match it to every horse, and track inventory down to the bale with the daily feed chart and feeding log.
01About forage planning
The Forage tab estimates each horse's annual hay need, tracks it by cutting, checks whether the hay meets each horse's energy and protein needs, and prices it. In the Equine Farm Manager it also pulls body condition from the BCS tab, pasture share from your grazing systems, and draws inventory down as you feed.
Forage first. Size it, test it, and fill only the real gaps. Grain is for horses that need calories forage cannot supply.
- Horses are entered once on the Farm tab and shared here.
- BCS comes from the latest saved worksheet automatically.
- Cutting fed can be left on Auto so the app picks the best-fit cutting in stock.
- Lab reports import as XML or PDF, and the library now records calcium, phosphorus, and lysine.
- New cards: pasture sugar risk, pasture intake calculator, feeding window, daily feed chart, and a feeding log that draws down bales on hand.
02Before you start
- Add your horses on the Farm tab with weight, class, housing, and grazing system.
- Gather bale weights and counts for each cutting or load, what you paid or what it cost to grow, and any forage analyses.
- Revisit the plan at haying, when lab results return, and again in the fall before barn-up.
03Step 1: The herd
Forage tab · The herd: class · grazing · cutting fed
Class, grazing system, weight, and head count come from each horse. Edit them here or on the Farm tab; both stay in sync. BCS is pulled from the latest worksheet. A single horse is a group of one; a set of similar horses can be one row with a head count.
Intake by class
Class sets dry-matter intake as a percent of body weight and the energy and protein targets:
| Class | Typical DM intake | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance, easy keeper | ~1.5% | Watch condition |
| Maintenance, average | ~2.0% | Default adult |
| Maintenance, hard keeper | ~2.25% | Struggles to hold weight |
| Senior | ~2.0% | Chewability and quality matter most |
| Insulin resistant / EMS | ~1.5% of ideal weight | Managed by sugar, not volume |
| Light, moderate, heavy work | ~2.0–2.75% | Rises with workload |
| Breeding stallion in season | ~2.25% | Similar to moderate work |
| Broodmare, gestation or lactation | ~2.0–2.75% | Climbs late in gestation and early in lactation |
| Growing (weanling, yearling) | ~2.5–2.75% | High needs per pound; confirm with a nutritionist |
Cutting fed: Auto or a pick
Leave Auto on and the app feeds each horse the best-fit cutting in stock for energy, protein, and, for insulin-resistant and easy-keeping horses, low sugar. Pick a specific cutting to override. If a picked cutting reaches 0 bales on hand, the app falls back to the best available cutting and flags it on this card.
Auto is only as good as the inventory behind it. Use the feeding log, and update received bales when you restock.
04Step 2: Feeding method
Feeding method sets the waste allowance. It often moves the annual total more than any other input.
| Feeding method | Waste allowance |
|---|---|
| Slow-feed hay net | ~6% |
| Manger or hay rack | ~12% |
| Round bale with feeder | ~15% |
| On the ground | ~20% |
| Round bale, no feeder | ~30% |
Use Waste override (%) if you have measured your own waste.
05Step 3: The hay library
Forage tab · Hay library — cuttings, cost & analysis
Add one entry per cutting or lot you keep separate: first cutting, second cutting, a purchased load. Keeping them separate lets the app feed leafier cuttings to the horses that need them and show whether you baled enough of each.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Name / lot | A name you'll recognize on the feed chart, such as "2026 2nd cut, north field" |
| Source | Hay (stored) or Pasture (grazed) |
| Forage type, quality | Grass, mixed, or legume; premium to fair. Drives the estimate until a test is entered. |
| Field | Optional link to the field it came from |
| lb / bale, bales on hand | Tons on hand is figured from these two |
| Cutting #, date | Harvest details |
| DM %, DE, CP, ESC + starch | From the lab report; dry-matter basis |
| Calcium, phosphorus, lysine | From the lab report; percent of dry matter |
Importing a lab report
Use Import lab report (XML / PDF). When your lab offers an XML file, use it; it is the most reliable. A lab PDF can place as-sampled and dry-matter columns side by side, so check the imported values against the report. A lab report fills DE, CP, DM, and sugar; untested cuttings use the quality and type estimate.
| Value | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Dry matter | How much of each bale is feed. Sets the as-fed pounds needed. |
| DE (Mcal/lb) | The basis of the energy check. Values outside about 0.40–1.10 are flagged "Check DE." |
| Crude protein | Compared against each class's protein need. |
| ESC + starch | Sugar and starch load. Aim under about 10% for insulin-resistant and laminitis-prone horses. |
| Calcium, phosphorus | Hay should supply at least as much calcium as phosphorus; many nutritionists aim for a ratio near 1.5:1 to 2:1. |
| Lysine | The first limiting amino acid for horses; matters most for growing horses and broodmares. |
06Step 4: Hay economics
Choose the cost basis for each cutting:
- Per bale: price plus delivery or handling per bale.
- Per ton: converted using bale weight. Common for large squares and rounds.
- Farm-grown: acres harvested, yield (tons/acre), land charge, establishment, fertilizer and lime, fuel, repairs and machinery, twine or net wrap, and labor. Returns cost per acre, per ton, and per bale.
Leaving out land, labor, and machinery is the most common way producers underprice their own forage. Without them, the figure is a cash cost, not a full cost.
Cost of feed compared
Every cutting is priced in dollars per megacalorie. That prices what the horse actually gets, not what the bale weighs. A cheap, stemmy cutting often costs more per calorie than a pricier leafy one.
07What testing changed
Once any cutting has a lab analysis, the app runs the plan twice: once on measured dry matter and energy, once on the visual estimate. It reports the difference so you can see what the test was worth in tons and dollars, and flags what only testing reveals: sugar against insulin-resistance thresholds, protein against broodmare and growth needs, and moisture surprises.
08Step 5: Grazing and pasture
Each horse has a grazing system with a percent of each month's forage from pasture. Western New York defaults (dry lot, managed grazing on dry lot, track system, rotational pasture, full-season turnout) can be edited to match your fields. The pasture sugar card and pasture intake calculator refine this further. See Pasture, Grazing & Sugar Risk.
09Reading the plan
| Figure | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Hay to feed, full year | Tons, bales, and as-fed pounds for the herd, after pasture and waste |
| Peak day (all-hay) | The herd's heaviest single day of hay |
| Heaviest month | Your winter storage requirement; check it against what the barn holds |
| Hay value on hand | Inventory valued at each cutting's cost |
| Cost / horse / yr | Annual hay cost per head |
| Hay demand across the year | Monthly need, showing where pasture carries the herd |
| Have vs. need by cutting | Surplus or shortfall per cutting. A surplus in one cutting does not cover a shortfall in another. |
10The feeding window
Forage tab · Feeding window — what to still buy, barn-up to turnout
Set a window start and end (and a buy price, if you like). Need is figured day by day across the window using each horse's class, weight, feeding waste, and that month's grazing share, so a window that runs into grazing season already credits pasture.
- Still to buy nets hay on hand against the window's need.
- Quality target says what each horse needs, so you can match a seller's hay test.
- Low-sugar need is tracked separately. Surplus average hay does not cover an insulin-resistant or easy-keeping horse.
11Daily feed chart and feeding log
Daily feed chart: pounds of hay per horse right now, reflecting this month's pasture, split AM and PM. Amounts drop in grazing season and rise in winter. Print it from Reports → Daily feed chart for whoever throws hay.
Feeding log: each entry subtracts bales from a cutting, so bales on hand, Auto selection, and fallback all track real inventory.
- Press Log today's feeding. The app reads the chart, converts each horse's pounds to bales of the cutting it is actually fed, and records today. Running it again replaces today's entry rather than adding a second one.
- For a manual entry, choose date, cutting, and bales fed, add a note if needed, and press Add feeding.
- When you restock a cutting, raise its received bales on the cutting's card in the hay library.
12Does the hay meet the herd?
Compares the energy and protein in hay eaten at target intake against each group's estimated need, using the cutting it is fed as the only forage. Results read short, meets, or rich. Use Rations for optional manual notes: a horse, a forage lot, and pounds per day.
This is a planning aid, not a formulated ration. Confirm insulin-resistant, senior, broodmare, and growing horses with your veterinarian or an equine nutritionist.
13Assumptions and troubleshooting
- Intake and energy follow NRC (2007)-style estimates scaled to body weight.
- Untested cuttings assume 90% dry matter and a visual-quality energy estimate.
- The energy check assumes hay is the only forage at target intake.
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| "Check DE" | Confirm the value is Mcal per pound of dry matter, not Mcal/kg or megajoules. |
| Imported values look doubled or low | The import may have read the as-sampled column. Re-enter from the dry-matter column. |
| A horse shows a fallback flag | Its picked cutting is at 0 bales. Restock it, update received bales, or switch to Auto. |
| Bales on hand dropped twice | Look for a manual entry on the same day as Log today's feeding, and delete one. |