September 17, 2020

LSU & DSE Stocking Rate Tables

At Mobble we service farmers all over Australia and New Zealand, where stocking units are different depending on where you farm. Northern Australian cattle farms often use the cattle Livestock Unit (LSU). In contrast, producers from southern Aus will use the Dry Sheep Equivalent (DSE) unit, and New Zealand farmers often use the Ewe Equivalent (EE) unit.

These online tables below can be used to calculate the stocking rates for sheep, cattle, goats, kangaroos, rabbits and horses on your enterprise. Best of luck - we hope it helps!

Note: the New Zealand EE is very similar to the Australian DSE for sheep, so we have simplified and combined the two under the DSE unit.‍

Breeding Cattle

	Dry Cattle		Pregnant Cows		Lactating Cows + Calf
Liveweight (kg)	DSE	LSU	DSE	LSU	DSE	LSU
400	6.38	0.94	7.52	1.09	13.4	1.94
500	7.09	1.03	8.37	1.21	15.18	2.2
600	8.37	1.21	9.65	1.4	17.81	2.58
700	9.65	1.4	10.98	1.59	20.26	2.94
800	10.96	1.59	12.36	1.79	22.69	3.29
900	12.28	1.78	13.58	1.97	25.13	3.64

Breeding Sheep - Merinos

MERINO	Dry		Pregnant				Lactating
	DSE	LSU	DSE		LSU		DSE		LSU
Liveweight (kg)			Single	Twins	Single	Twins	Single	Twins	Single	Twins
40	0.85	0.12	1.09	1.27	0.16	0.18	2.07	2.87	0.3	0.42
50	1	0.14	1.26	1.45	0.18	0.21	2.47	3.43	0.36	0.5
60	1.15	0.17	1.42	1.62	0.21	0.23	2.87	4.09	0.42	0.59
70	1.29	0.19	1.6	1.8	0.23	0.26	3.26	4.62	0.47	0.67
80	1.44	0.21	1.77	1.96	0.26	0.28	3.64	5.15	0.53	0.75

Breeding Sheep - Crossbreds

CROSSBRED	Dry		Pregnant				Lactating
	DSE	LSU	DSE		LSU		DSE		LSU
Liveweight (kg)			Single	Twins	Single	Twins	Single	Twins	Single	Twins
40	0.86	0.12	1.12	1.31	0.16	0.19	2.23	3.11	0.32	0.45
50	1.01	0.15	1.29	1.53	0.19	0.22	2.68	3.45	0.39	0.53
60	1.14	0.17	1.45	1.67	0.21	0.24	3.05	4.23	0.44	0.61
70	1.31	0.19	1.62	1.84	0.23	0.27	3.52	4.84	0.51	0.7
80	1.43	0.21	1.78	2.01	0.26	0.29	3.81	5.25	0.55	0.76

Goats

GOATS	DSE	LSU
Dry Angora	1	0.17
Breeding Angora	1.5	0.22
Dry milk or meat goat	1.5	0.22
Milk or meat goat - lactating	3	0.27
Billy	1.56	0.23

Horses

HORSES	DSE	LSU
Pony	5	1.57
Horse	10	2
Lactating Mare	16	2.5
Stallion	16	2.5

Rabbits & Kangaroos

Vermin	DSE
Rabbit	0.07
Kangaroo	0.7

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Information sourced from RCS Australia resource toolbox - for more in depth tables we recommend you go to the RCS website and download the free AU (Animal Unit) calculators.