Cornerpost Logic

Grazing Planner

Sign In

How to Use Grazing Planner

Grazing Planner forecasts this season's grass for your Nebraska county and tells you how many head your pasture can carry from May 1 to October 31: keep them, move or sell some, or room for more. The county forecast is free, with no sign-in.

Getting Started

  1. Your pasture. On the Planner, pick your County (or Find your county on the map), then enter Pasture acres and choose the Pasture type.
  2. Your herd. Pick the Kind of animal and How many. Several kinds? Pick A mixed herd.
  3. Press Next: Pick a Date (Save, Then Pick a Date for a named pasture when you're signed in). The answer is one plain step: keep them, move or sell some, or room for more, with how sure it is.
  4. Pick a date. Each date under Pick a date shows the forecast as it stood that day. Later dates know more of the season.
  5. Optional: sign in to save. Sign In uses your My Farm account. Give the pasture a name and it's kept on My Ranch, with the latest forecast each time you come back.

How Do I…

Move between the steps?

The planner opens on your pasture, with your herd as a line below it. Use the step row at the top. Your Pasture and Your Herd open their card and fold the other one to a single line; Next: Your Herd does the same. Close folds a card and Change opens it again. Pick a Date and Your Answer take you down to them once there is an answer.

Plan more than one pasture?

Several pastures of the same type in one county, grazed by one herd: add up their acres. Different types or counties: enter each one. Signed in, give each a Pasture name and see them together on My Ranch.

Plan a mixed herd, or cattle and sheep together?

Kind of animal › A mixed herd, then Add a Kind for each row. Or Load a file (CSV): Herd Planner's herd download, or your own sheet (Sample file shows how). The file is read in your browser and never sent anywhere.

Change the animals on a saved pasture?

My Herd. A herd changed there is used by every forecast for that pasture.

Bring in the pastures I drew in My Farm?

My Ranch › Bring In From My Farm. Pick the ones to add; their name, acres and county come with them, and you choose the pasture type.

Allow for a pasture that grows more or less than the county?

In step 1, under Your Pasture Compared With the County, the county's normal grass is shown in pounds an acre. Pick Better or worse and a percent, or I've weighed it and type what your pasture grows in a normal year: the planner works out the percent. Every answer scales with it, and a saved pasture keeps it. From an answer, Adjust It (or Change) takes you back to it. A fertilized brome pasture often grows more than the county's mostly native range.

Clip and weigh my grass?

NDSU Extension's method: make a square frame 16.6 inches on a side (1.92 square feet). Toss it in 5 to 15 spots across the pasture, more where the ground or grass changes. Clip everything inside each frame, let it air-dry, and weigh it in grams. The average grams times 50 is pounds an acre. Clip near the end of the growing season, when the grass is at its most. One year's clipping reflects that year's weather: in a dry or wet year, compare it with the county that year (the Season Map) and use Better or worse. NDSU's sample kits

See what hay or rented grass would cost?

Fill in If the grass runs short: Bale weight, Hay price and Grass rent. The answer then prices each way through to October 31.

The hay price fills in by itself with Nebraska's price in the week of your check, from USDA's Nebraska Direct Hay Report: what grass hay or fair-to-good alfalfa in large bales sold for over the 8 weeks before, weighted by tons. Press Grass Hay or Alfalfa to switch, or My Own Price and type yours (a price you type is the one saved with the pasture). Under the hay cost, Likely is what a poor year's hay would cost at the prices 8 in 10 tons sold for. Prices are at the stack: hauling is extra.

Hay counts 15% more than the cattle eat, for hay fed but trampled or left (round bales in feeders; ring feeders waste less, unrolling more). To sell instead, Barn Prices has this week's prices at sale barns.

See how my county compares with the rest of Nebraska?

The Season Map colors every county by its grass against its own normal. Drought shows the U.S. Drought Monitor's map.

Look back at an earlier season?

Choose it under Season, then pick a date: you'll see what the app said that day and how the season turned out.

Remove a saved pasture?

Open it on the Planner and press Remove. It asks once more before it goes.

What the Numbers Mean

  • Grass, lb per acre: pounds of dry forage grown in a season, a satellite average of the county's grassland from the Rangeland Analysis Platform.
  • Normal: the county's average over the 10 seasons before this one.
  • 8 in 10: where the season's grass lands 8 years in 10, from how far off the same forecast was in earlier seasons.
  • Before June 1: nothing forecasts the season's total well that early, so the app shows a normal year with the spread seasons have had.
  • Carries, 9 years in 10: the head with enough grass from May 1 to October 31 in 9 seasons out of 10.
  • Harvest: animals can only use part of what grows. The app counts 25% on native range and 30% on tame pasture, and 913 lb of forage for each animal-unit month.
  • Animal units: a 1,000 lb cow with her calf counts as 1. A 1,200 lb cow with her calf is 1.15, and a ewe with her lamb 0.20 (NDSU Extension).
  • The July 1 and August 1 checks: they weigh the grass already grown against what's still to come. August's only says keep or sell.

County numbers, not your pasture's. How It Works says how sure the forecast is, and How We Test shows the tests.

When Something Looks Wrong

  • "Your Grazing Planner trial ended": you're on the free version: one pasture at a time and the Season Map. Your saved pastures and herds are kept. Press Ask for Access and we'll email you when it's back on.
  • "Your account doesn't include the Grazing Planner yet": press Ask for Access; we'll email you when it's on. Trials and subscriptions are kept in My Farm, one place for every app.
  • "See the Rest With a Free Account": without an account the planner answers three different pastures a month (a different county, kind of grass or acres; acres within 10% of one already answered, or changing the date or the herd, don't count). A pasture counts once you're done with it: when you close Your Pasture, or after its answer has been up for 20 seconds, so changing several things at once is one answer. The fourth shows its headline and asks for a free My Farm account: about a minute, no card, nothing to pay. Sign up or sign in and the answer opens; signed in there is no limit.
  • "The server didn't answer just now": it naps when nobody's using it. Wait a minute and reload the page.
  • "The first forecast comes April 1": the new season hasn't started yet. Pick last season under Season to see how it went.
  • The newest weeks are missing: the satellite grass data runs about two weeks behind. The line under the green bar says how far it goes.
  • My pasture looks better (or worse) than the answer: the forecast is for the county as a whole. Set Your Pasture Compared With the County, and walk your pasture: what you see beats a county average.
  • "This pasture's county is no longer available": pick a county from the list and save again.
  • No My Ranch or My Herd in the white row: they appear once you're signed in.

Ask a Question