Pasture assessment underpins all good grazing management decisions. Without systematic measurement, it’s easy to misjudge feed availability, miss early warning signs of degradation, and make stocking decisions based on optimism rather than evidence.
What to assess
A complete pasture assessment covers:
- Ground cover — percentage of bare soil visible from above
- Species composition — balance of preferred grasses, decreasers, increasers, and weeds
- Pasture condition score — an integrated rating of the above
- Herbage mass — estimate of dry matter on offer (kg DM/ha)
How often to assess
Most experienced managers assess informally every time they ride or drive through a paddock — checking ground cover, looking for early weed emergence, and estimating feed on offer. Formal assessments using transects, photo points, and score sheets should be done at least twice per year: at the start and end of the wet season.
Photo monitoring — standing at fixed GPS-marked points and photographing the ground every year — is the simplest way to track long-term trends that are hard to see year-to-year.
Using assessment to make decisions
Assessment data feeds directly into stocking rate decisions. A paddock with declining species composition and poor ground cover needs immediate relief from grazing pressure. A paddock with improving composition and building herbage mass is ready for moderate utilisation.