The movement of grazing livestock can be recorded in Farm Focus using the non-financial event 'grazing', whether you are grazing another farmer's animals, sending your stock away grazing or through stock finance where the stock company owns the animals.
This guide explains how farmers can record grazing events, to ensure stock numbers owned as well as the stock numbers physically on farm are correct to ensure accurate and valuable forward looking planning and reporting.
If grazing stock is a minor part of your business, you may want to simply track the income and expenses related to the grazing without accounting for stock movements. |
Watch this video or read this article for further information
Entering grazing stock as an actual
Enter an actual grazing stock movement either straight from the Livestock grid in the Working plan (+Add) or via Actuals >Stock Activity, the same as any other non-financial livestock event.
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Points to note:
Event: Choose "Grazing."
Event Date: Select a specific date or entire month for the first event.
Quantity: Enter the number of animals moving on or off farm. The return event below populates the same number. If there are changes in the stock return quantity (perhaps deaths), a separate event will need to be recorded.
Stock Movement: Choose whether the animals are leaving to be grazed "Off farm" or arriving for grazing "On farm."
Code: Enter the code for the stock class.
Description and Note: Add important details, for example contract notes, animal weights when leaving.
Return Date: Enter the date the stock will be returning/leaving, again the specific date or entire month. If the return date is in the next financial year and your livestock code is set to automatically age-up in the code setup, then Farm Focus will automatically enter the aged up stock code for the return.
Save: Click "Save" when finished.
NOTE: If entering grazing events as an actual where the return of the stock is after the revision line in the Working Plan, you will need to enter the return event as a planned event in the plan.
Entering grazing stock in a plan
Go to Plans > Livestock
In the Livestock grid there are two views:
Stock owned
Stock on Farm
There is a token in the top right corner which indicates which view you are in.
You can move between the views by clicking on that token, or the View icon (also in the top right corner), then selecting to view as Stock owned or Stock on farm, and clicking Apply.
Stock owned
This view displays stock owned by the business regardless of its location.
Grazing events are not seen in this view and the event 'Grazing' is not available, because stock grazing on or off farm has no impact on ownership. It is important to have the stock owned numbers accurate for your bank and the accountant, as well as for your own reporting.
Stock on farm
This view displays stock physically on the farm.
The non-financial event 'Grazing' is available and grazing movements can be entered in this view. Entering grazing movements to accuratley record the quantity of stock on farm allows us to view how many stock units are physically on farm to manage the stocking rate and feed budgeting, for example.
To confirm- to enter grazing movements into the Livestock grid, you must be in 'Stock on farm' view.
Grazing from the perspective of the stock owner
In this example 450 hoggets are being grazed off farm in August 2024 until December 2024.
Stock owned view
The stock movements in August and December will not show on the stock grid because the farmer still owns the stock.
Stock on farm view
The grazing stock movements are shown as they have physically left the farm in August and returned in December.
Grazing from the perspective of the grazier
Here the 450 dry hoggets arrive on farm in August 2024 and return to the farm owner in December 2024.
Stock owned view
The stock movements are not shown in the Livestock grid as you do not own the stock.
Stock on farm view
The stock movements are shown. The 450 hoggets physically arrive on the farm in August and leave in December.
End of Financial Year
It is important that the stock owned reconciliation is correct, especially at the end of the financial year, to ensure that your accountant has accurate information for your end of year reproting.
Example: You own 900 ewe hoggets but 500 are grazed off the farm from August 2024 until July 2025.
Stock owned view
At the end of the financial year your stock grid will a year end tally of 900 hoggets ageing up to close as 2th Ewes. Although you only have 400 physically on farm, you still own 900 ewe hoggets.
Stock on farm view
There is a year end quantity of 400 hoggets, although you own 900, as there are only 400 are on farm.
Recording payments
This article has explained how to manage the movement of grazing stock to maintain an accurate stock reconciliation. The income generated from grazing is coded as Other income > Grazing. The expense of grazing is coded under farm expenditure as Grazing