Feed & Forage for Lifestyle Blocks in New Zealand

A child feeding a goat while a kid goat lies on the grass near them

Choosing, growing, and storing quality feed for your animals

Good feed is the foundation of animal health and productivity. On a lifestyle block, you may produce some of it yourself and buy in the rest. Knowing how to select, grow, and store feed — and how to budget for it — will help you get the best value while keeping your stock in top condition.

This guide brings together our best advice and links to detailed articles in the Feed & Forage section.

Planning and Budgeting for Feed

One of the commonest questions I get is 'How many animals can I feed on my land?' and there's no simple answer. To get started though, you could work out a feed budget.

Feed budgets

Hay

Hay is the easiest supplement to feed. It's readily available and cheap. But it won't put weight on animals and bad hay is worse than no hay.

Silage and Balage

Bales of balage

Balage and silage are higher-quality feed than hay as the nutrients have been preserved. But as will all feed there is a danger in buying poorly made feed.

Forage Crops and Trees

There's more to feed that pasture and bought in feed. For example, most livestock love to eat tree clippings and you can plant fodder trees to give you extra options and to offer your animals variety.

More Resources

For pasture planning and soil health, see our Soil & Fertiliser and Pasture Management guides.
For species-specific feeding needs, see Livestock & Pets.
Browse all of our Feed & Forage articles