RGP Tool Page 1 “Weights” is where we take a snapshot in time of our flock, to find out how much the animals weigh and how much food they need to eat, based on their body weight.
We made a giant leap when we acquired a scale and actually weighed the flock. Our previous estimates turned out to be quite inaccurate. Animal scales are available on the web, and sometimes at local feed stores.
In RGP Tool Page 1 “Weights” Rows 1 – 18 contain our animal body weights.
The cell at Column 2, Row 20 contains an embedded formula that adds up all the body weights and so we see the total flock weight in that cell.
The cell at Column 2, Row 22 contains an embedded formula that shows the weight of dry feed the flock needs to consume each day, based on the total flock body weight.
Rows 34 – 38 on this page show the amount of “extras” we feed the flock each day. The cell at Column 2, Row 38 contains an embedded formula that adds up all the extras and gives the total weight of our daily extra feed.
If we subtract the amount of extra feed from the amount of food the animals need, that is the amount of forage that the pasture must supply for our flock.
The cell at Column 2, Row 42 has a formula built in to do that subtraction function for us.
This cell provides the number we plug in to RGP Page 2, “Field Days,” to build our grazing plan.