BASIC FEED COSTINGS CALCULATOR
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It doesn't matter whether you're a backyard hobby goat keeper or a commercial breeder finishing hundreds of kids per year - knowing how much your herd is costing to keep can really help. Luckily, our free "Basic Feed Costings" calculator below can help with this!
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This calculator is completely free to use for everyone - regardless of whether or not you're a member of the BBMGA - and is powered by Google Sheets. It takes into account concentrate, forage, and bedding use and rent costs to provide a rough estimate of the costs to feed your livestock.
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What Can the Feed Cost Calculator Tell Me?
This feed cost calculator is designed to provide a rough estimate of feed costs for your herd as a whole or for a group of animals. The calculator can tell you the daily cost of feeding and bedding your stock, as well as the monthly costs, the costs over a custom length of time, and the cost per animal in the group. This can allow you to make more informed decisions regarding your feeding plan - along with support from a professional nutritionist's guidance, of course!
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The feed cost calculator is designed to provide an insight into the costs associated with a particular feeding plan. In turn, this can allow you to work out numerous important pieces of information and answer several key questions, such as:
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- Work out how much your goats are costing to feed per day / per month / over a custom period of time.
- See how changing the ration (e.g. more / less concentrates) impacts the cost of feeding compared to the current ration.
- Check how changing feed costs (e.g. price rises) will impact your costs compared to the current price of feeding.
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How to Use the Feed Cost Calculator
Using the calculator is relatively simple. It may take a minute or so for the calculator to load in, in some cases.
Before you use the calculator, check that no one else is actively using it (i.e. if the document is being edited by another user). If the document is in use, try checking the other sheets to find one that's not in use (there are five to choose from, which you can switch between from the bottom of the calculator). If all five sheets are in use, please try again later or (if you're a BBMGA member) contact us for your own private calculator.
First, click the in-use check box at the top right of the calculator to show other people that it's in use.
Then, fill out the white boxes with the relevant information in the first section (n.b. if you don't know the cost per tonne or daily use for your feed, you can estimate it using the calculators at the very bottom of the page).
Once all the information is filled out, the calculator will automatically calculate the daily and monthly feed costs, total costs for feed, bedding, and rent, and the costs per goat.
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When you're finished, you can clear all of the information you inputted (if you wish). Please uncheck the "in use" check box so other people know they can use the sheet. Any sheets that haven't been edited for one hour or longer may be wiped to allow other people to use the calculator.
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The easiest way to use the calculator is to work out a whole herd average. However, if different groups in your herd are fed different amounts (e.g. growing kids vs. adult stock), simply complete the calculator for each group.
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Limitations of the Free Calculator
This calculator is completely free to use for everyone, regardless of which species you keep, although it can only provide a limited amount of information. Some of the main limitations of the free calculator include the following:
- Does not account for additional costs (e.g. supplements, insurance, stock purchases, slaughter costs, lost stock, etc.)
- The daily cost per goat is a whole herd / group average; in reality, the costs may differ from group to group.
- If calculating costs to rear kids, the calculator does not directly factor in the cost of feeding its dam and sire
- Although the calculator can be used anonymously, it is publicly available; as such, anyone can use it.
- If many people are using the calculator at once, there may not be an available version to use; please come back later.
- Data cannot be saved; data that has not been edited for one hour may be cleared to allow others to use it.
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Members of the BBMGA can request a private version of this calculator, as well as all of our other member-exclusive calculators which account for additional costs and provide a greater wealth of information.
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