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Livestock calculations: where do they come from?
Livestock calculations: where do they come from?

Understanding how the livestock KPI's that are found throughout Figured are calculated

Genevra Scott avatar
Written by Genevra Scott
Updated over a week ago

The livestock key performance indicators can be found in a number of places across the Figured platform. You'll see these pop up in reports, in your livestock tracker KPI bar as well as scenarios. This article will help you understand how these are calculated and what they measure.

Stock Units

Stock units are a means of calculating stock numbers between species and age groups on the basis of relative feed demands. Stock Units are calculated based on the opening stock numbers and the stock units assigned to each stock class within the weight configuration page.
Read more about the weight configuration page by heading to this article!

For example, if we look at the opening stock number for our sheep tracker below we will want to identify which stock classes we start our season with and the quantity against each stock class.

We want to then head to our weight configuration page to see the stock unit rate for each of those stock classes. You can access this by heading into the Tracker Settings and clicking into Configure Weights under Stock Weights.

From there, take the opening stock quantity for each stock class x the stock unit rate of that class

MA Ewes : 2,207 x 1 = 2207

Two Tooth Ewes: 300 x 1 = 300

Ewe Hoggets: 200 x. 70 = 140

Mixed Lambs: 170 x 1 = 170

Breeding Rams: 9 x .80 = 7

Then we add those totals to get our total stock units = 2,824 stock units

Birth Rate Percentage

The birth rate is the number of offspring actually produced divided by the number of potential livestock capable of producing offspring. To calculate the birth rate we want to take the total number of births for that season divided by the total opening quantities for your breeding stock classes. Take that calculation and multiply it by 100 to give you the percentage.

MA Ewes: 2,207 Two Tooth Ewes: 300 Ewe Hoggets: 200 Total: 2,707

1,019 ÷ 2,707 = 0.376, round it off to 0.38 0.38 x 100 = 38%

Exactly which classes are to be included as 'breeding stock classes' is determined by the user by going into the tracker settings and there is a column next to the stock class name that allows you to tick the box to include them or not in the calculation as pictured below:

<a href="https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/654501170/29aac4ec6f67856b39a92064/Screen+Shot+2023-01-18+at+3.36.44+PM.png" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/654501170/29aac4ec6f67856b39a92064/Screen+Shot+2023-01-18+at+3.36.44+PM.png</a>

Average Herd Size

The average herd size is the average size of your herd throughout your season. This is calculated using the sum of the closing monthly stock numbers divided by 12. For example, if we look at the closing monthly stock quantities in the below monthly sheep tracker report, we can calculate the average herd size in the sheep tracker

Sum all stock for the year: 44,728

Months in the year: 12

Average Herd Size: 44,728 ➗12 = 3,727

Value of Hand

The value on hand figure is directly linked to what the value of stock on hand is recorded at on the balance sheet at the end of a financial year. This value can be displayed on both a forecasted and an actuals basis.

When viewing actuals, the value reported on the balance sheet is directly linked to what is recorded in your accounting software. This figure is updated once you have completed your end of year valuations and posted them to your accounting software, so make sure everything is up to date! Read more about completing your end of year valuations here.

Average Opening and Average Closing Weight

These values are calculated based on the total opening and closing values for all stock within a tracker and the weights configured to each stock class. The average weight across all stock classes is then calculated and shown in the KPI bar within your tracker.

You can find and edit the expected closing weights for each stock class from within your weight configuration page. You can see in the example below our MA Ewes expected closing weight is 62 kgs.

The total opening and closing weights are calculated for each individual stock class based on their opening and closing quantities within the tracker. In this case the opening stock quantity for our MA Ewes is 2,207 and our closing stock quantity is 2,412.

Using these figures our MA Ewes would be 2,207 x 62kg = 136,834kg opening weight, and 2,412 x 62kg = 149,544kg closing weight.

This calculation is repeated for each stock class with opening and/or closing balances in the tracker, taking the opening and closing values and multiplying by their assigned weight to give a total weight for the tracker.

In the above example the total opening weight for all stock is 170,539kg, and the total closing weight for all stock is 166,666kg. We also have a total opening stock quantity of 2,886 and a total closing stock quantity of 2,723.

From here we can work out the average weight by dividing the total weights by the total stock quantities.

Average opening weight = 170,539 ➗ 2,886 = 59.09kg

Average closing weight = 166,666 ➗ 2,723 = 61.21kg

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