Dry Sheep Equivalent (DSE) is a standard unit frequently used in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
to compare the feed requirements of different classes of stock or to assess the carrying capacity and potential productivity of a given farm or area of grazing land.
The unit represents the amount of feed required by a two-year-old, 45 kg (some sources state 50 kg)
Merino sheep
The Merino is a breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monopoly; exports of the breed ...
(
wether
Wether may refer to:
*A castrated male goat
*A castrated male sheep
*A misspelling of weather
*A misspelling of whether
*Wether Down, a hill in Hampshire
*Wether Hill (Lake District), a hill in Cumbria
*Wether Holm (disambiguation)
See also
*Weth ...
or
non-lactating,
non-pregnant ewe) to maintain its weight. One DSE is equivalent to 7.60
megajoule (MJ) per day.
The carrying capacity of a farm is commonly determined in Australia by expressing the number of stock carried during a period of feed shortage in terms of their DSEs.
Benchmarking standards used by Grazing for Profit programmes quote that one labour unit (40 hours per week) is required for 6,000 DSE (other benchmarking standards set the figure at 7,000 DSE).
See also
*
Livestock grazing comparison
Livestock grazing comparison is a method of comparing the numbers and density of livestock grazing in agriculture. Various units of measurement are used, usually based on the grazing equivalent of one adult cow, or in some areas on that of one she ...
*
Sheep
Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...
References and notes
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*
*{{cite web , last = Millear , first = George , author2 = Anne Conway , author3 = Tony Mills , year = 2003 , url = http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/sheep/5340.html , title = Calculating a gross margin for sheep, goat and cattle enterprises , publisher = Queensland Government: Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries , accessdate = 2006-10-18 , url-status = dead , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20060823081336/http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/sheep/5340.html , archivedate = 2006-08-23
External links
How to use Dry Sheep Equivalents (DSEs) to compare sheep enterprisesUsing DSEs and carrying capacities to compare beef enterprises
Australian sheep industry
Livestock in Australia
Equivalent units