3.01 - Pasture rulers,sticks and meters

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Various paddock aids are available to assist with assessing pasture, ranging from the MLA Pasture Ruler and the PROGRAZE® stick to commercially available pasture meters:

  • Pasture rulers or sticks that measure height and equate to pasture mass – calibrated to read green dry matter when 100% green and capable of conversion to dry matter, using PROGRAZE information. These aids are simple to use and very cheap.
  • Rising plate meters that measure total dry matter – most sophisticated models will store and average readings over a number of paddocks.
  • Electronic probes that measure green dry matter – may collect additional manual input, such as phenology descriptors, store and average readings over a number of paddocks and download direct to office computers.

Note that both plate meters and electronic probes require calibration cuts for specific pasture types and compositions don’t rely on the calibration data that comes with either.

Figure 1: The MLA Pasture Ruler - order your copy here for free. 

Also have a look at these handy Tips & Tools to understand how to get most out of the Pasture Ruler.

 For more information on use of pasture meters and measurement of pasture mass see Tool 2.7.