🐄 Livestock Feed Calculator for Africa

Formulate balanced feed rations for cattle, goats and sheep using locally available African ingredients. Calculate daily feed costs in your local currency.

🏄 15 Countries 🐄 Cattle • Goats • Sheep 🌿 30+ Feed Ingredients 🌐 100% Free
1
Select Country
Pick your country below. Feed prices load automatically in local currency.
2
Set Up Animal
Choose animal type, class (dairy/beef/fattening), breed, and body weight.
3
Pick Local Feeds
Select feeds available near you. Locally available feeds are pre-checked.
4
Get Your Ration
Receive daily ration, nutritional balance check, cost summary, and feeding schedule.
West Africa (4)
East Africa (5)
Central Africa (1)
Southern Africa (2)
North Africa (3)

About the Livestock Feed Calculator

AfroTools' Livestock Feed Calculator helps African farmers, veterinary officers, and livestock advisors formulate balanced feed rations using locally available ingredients. The tool uses NRC (National Research Council) nutrient standards adapted for African tropical breeds, covering cattle, goats, and sheep across all major production classes.

How It Works

Select your country, animal type and production class (e.g., dairy cow producing 10L/day), breed and body weight. The calculator determines daily dry matter intake (DMI), crude protein (CP) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) requirements. You then choose available feed ingredients — the engine allocates roughage (40–70% of DMI) and concentrates (energy + protein feeds) to meet nutritional targets, converting to fresh weights and calculating daily and monthly costs in local currency.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the livestock feed calculator work?

The calculator uses NRC nutrient requirements adapted for African tropical breeds. You select your animal type, production class, body weight, and locally available feed ingredients. The engine calculates daily dry matter intake, allocates feeds to meet crude protein and TDN targets, and provides a complete daily ration with costs in local currency.

What animals does the calculator support?

The calculator supports cattle (dairy cows, beef cattle, calves), goats (does, bucks, kids), and sheep (ewes, rams, lambs). Each has multiple production classes — e.g., dairy cow lactating high/medium/low, beef growing, fattening, or maintenance.

Can I use local or free feed ingredients?

Yes. The calculator includes many free or very cheap African feeds: Napier grass, Leucaena leaf meal, Moringa leaf meal, sweet potato vines, cassava peel, maize stover, cowpea haulm, and groundnut haulm. These tree and crop byproduct feeds can significantly cut feed costs.

What is dry matter (DM) and why does it matter?

Dry matter is the weight of feed after all water is removed. Animals require a certain amount of nutrients per day, and nutrient content is expressed on a DM basis. Fresh feeds like Napier grass are 80% water (20% DM), so you need 5 kg of fresh grass to provide 1 kg of DM. The calculator converts all results to fresh (as-fed) weights for easy measurement.

Is the calculator free to use?

Yes, 100% free. No registration required. All calculations happen in your browser — no data is sent to any server.