The Whole Farm Dairy Nutrient Calculator module of FarmBuild's JavaScript library is available through the GITHUB repository.

A Whole Farm Nutrient Balance Calculator for Australian dairy farms has been developed in partnership with Murray Goulburn, the Gardiner Foundation and DEDJTR. This JavaScript library is a developer version of the calculator that can be used to model nutrient flow in and out of a dairy farms. Since Australian dairy farms generally import larger quantities of nutrients than they export, knowing the nutrient balance of a farm gives farmers the potential to save money.

What is a Nutrient Balance Calculator?

The Nutrient Balance Calculator determines how efficiently a nutrient is being used on-farm. The amount of a nutrient leaving in farm products (milk or animals) is subtracted from nutrient inputs to calculate the nutrient balance (kilogram of nutrient per hectare of land).

The Whole Farm Nutrient Balance Calculator works with yearly totals. The following is the list of nutrient (N, P, K, S, Ca and Mg) calculator functions provided in this package:

Whole Farm Nutrient Balance Calculator Sources

The Whole Farm Nutrient Balance Calculator for Australian dairy farms was developed through The ‘Accounting for Nutrients on Australian Dairy Farms’ project (A4N). It developed a nationally agreed nutrient accounting framework for N, P, K, S, Ca and Mg for the Australian dairy industry. FarmBuild acknowledges DEDJTR researchers Dr. Cameron Gourley (Project Leader and Principal Research Scientist) and Ivor Awty (Senior Technical Officer). For further information refer to the journal publication - Gourley CJP et al. (2012) Farm-scale nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur balances and use efficiencies on Australian dairy farms. Animal Production Science 52, 929–944.

**NEW**

Nutrient Benchmarking Whisker Charts

Benchmarking Whisker Charts have been added to the Dairy Nutrient Calculator. Benchmarking parameters estimated from 60 sets of farm data have been hard coded into the version available on GitHub.

nutrient whisker chart

Example of the benchmarking whisker charts now available as part of the Dairy Nutrient Calculator.

Dairy Animal Density Calculator

The Dairy Animal Density Calculator is now available to support the mapping and monitoring of cows/animals across a farm according to animal-hour, paddock area and number of animals. Provided as a generic open source model, this new function can be integrated with a range of applications including nutrient and grazing models. Now available on GitHub.

animal density mapping

Screenshot showing example output using the Animal Density Mapping function now available.

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