Key points

• Monitoring pasture growth is a key to better livestock nutrition and greatly improved farm productivity
• There are effective tools available for measuring pasture cover and these are now being calibrated for sheep pastures
• By measuring how much pasture is present in a paddock, we can make accurate feed budgets, plan feed requirements and make better grazing management decisions
• Pasture cover estimates need to be adjusted for seasonal differences in the amount of dead matter in the sward
• WoolPro has set up PasturePlan, a nation-wide pasture measurement programme which will help farmers become familiar with pasture measurement.