Winter Hay and Baleage Calculator NZ

This calculator works out how many bales you need to get your stock through winter, in New Zealand bale weights and kilograms rather than the American pounds and US bale sizes that most of the tools ranking for this question use. You enter how many animals you are feeding and roughly what they weigh, how many days you need to cover, what sort of bale you are buying, and how much you expect to waste feeding out, and it returns the bales needed, the total dry matter, the cost and the cost per animal per day. Two inputs decide the answer more than anything else. The first is bale weight, which varies enormously: a round hay bale might be 200 kilograms or 350, and if you are buying you should ask the seller what theirs actually weigh rather than assuming, because a hundred kilogram error per bale compounds across a whole winter. The second is the difference between hay and baleage. Hay is around 85 percent dry matter and baleage around 45 percent, so a baleage bale weighing twice as much can carry barely more actual feed, and comparing the two on price per bale rather than price per kilogram of dry matter is how people end up paying far more than they meant to. Wastage matters too, and it increases what you need to buy rather than reducing what the animals eat. Feeding on the ground in a wet paddock can waste a fifth of it; a ring feeder cuts that to a tenth or less.

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110
bales needed for the winter
Dry matter required22,500 kg DM
Total cost$9,350
Cost per animal per day$5.19
Dry matter per bale233.8 kg DM

Bale weight is the single biggest source of error here. If you are buying, ask what the bales actually weigh rather than assuming.

How it works

Daily dry matter demand is liveweight multiplied by the intake percentage, so a 500 kilogram animal at 2.5 percent needs 12.5 kilograms of dry matter a day. Multiply by the number of animals and the days you are feeding to get the total dry matter required. Each bale carries its weight multiplied by its dry matter percentage, so a 275 kilogram hay bale at 85 percent holds 233.75 kilograms of dry matter. Wastage is applied to what the bale delivers rather than to demand, because feed trampled into mud never reaches the animal, so a 12 percent wastage means each bale effectively delivers 88 percent of its dry matter. Bales needed is the total dry matter divided by that effective figure, rounded up, because you cannot buy most of a bale.

Worked example

Twenty 500 kilogram cattle eating 2.5 percent of liveweight need 12.5 kilograms of dry matter each a day, which is 250 kilograms a day across the mob and 22,500 kilograms over a 90 day winter. Round hay bales at 275 kilograms and 85 percent dry matter hold 233.75 kilograms of dry matter each, and at 12 percent feed-out wastage each bale effectively delivers about 205.7 kilograms. That is 110 bales once rounded up. At $85 a bale the winter costs $9,350, which works out at about $5.19 per animal per day. Switching to round baleage at 650 kilograms but only 45 percent dry matter gives 292.5 kilograms of dry matter a bale, so you would need fewer bales, and whether that is cheaper depends entirely on the price per bale rather than on which looks bigger.

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Data sources: intake rates and bale weights are New Zealand industry conventions rather than published standards, and every one of them is an input you can change. Figures are checked twice monthly.

Frequently asked questions

How much hay does a cow eat per day in New Zealand?

A dry cow eats roughly 2 to 2.5 percent of her liveweight in dry matter a day, so a 500 kilogram cow needs about 10 to 12.5 kilograms of dry matter. Because hay is around 85 percent dry matter, that is about 12 to 15 kilograms of actual hay. Baleage is much wetter at roughly 45 percent dry matter, so the same cow needs more than twice the weight of baleage to get the same feed.

How much does a round bale weigh in New Zealand?

A round hay bale is typically 200 to 350 kilograms and a small square 20 to 25 kilograms, but weight varies a lot with the baler, the crop and how dry it was baled. Round baleage is much heavier again, often 600 to 700 kilograms, because most of that weight is water. If you are buying, ask the seller what their bales actually weigh rather than assuming, because bale weight is the single biggest source of error in this calculation.

Why do overseas hay calculators give the wrong answer here?

Because they work in pounds and American bale sizes. A US small square is often 40 to 60 pounds and a US round bale can be 1,200 pounds, neither of which matches a New Zealand bale. Feeding rates quoted in pounds per head per day also need converting. This calculator works in kilograms and New Zealand bale weights throughout.

How much hay is wasted feeding out?

Feeding hay on the ground in a wet paddock can waste 20 percent or more, trampled or fouled. A ring feeder or a hay rack cuts that to nearer 5 to 10 percent. Wastage increases the number of bales you need to buy rather than reducing what the animals eat, so it belongs in the calculation rather than as an afterthought.