Will the Stack Last Till March? The Winter Fodder Arithmetic

Every Kashmiri farmer knows the February feeling — eyeing a shrinking stack, mentally dividing what's left by the snow still to come. That anxiety has a cure, and it's arithmetic performed in September instead of February.

The three numbers

1. How many eating days? Green fodder in the valley realistically vanishes from around mid-November until well into March — plan for roughly 120–150 days of stall feeding on stored fodder. Choose your own number honestly by altitude; higher villages, longer number.

2. How much per animal per day? For an adult cow or buffalo on a straw/hay base, a working figure is 6–10 kg of dry fodder daily (dry weight — dry fodder is nearly all dry matter), depending on body size and how much of the ration concentrate carries. Young stock proportionally less. Take a middle figure per adult and be honest about herd count — include the heifer everyone forgets.

3. Multiply, then add a margin. Animals × daily kilos × days, plus 15–20% margin for a late spring, a spoiled stack corner, wastage in the trough. The margin is not pessimism; it's the difference between a plan and a hope.

Worked example: 2 adults × 8 kg × 135 days ≈ 2,160 kg; with margin, call it 2,500 kg. Now the vague "some trolleys of bhusa" becomes a number you can count against deliveries.

Counting the stack

Ask weight at purchase and tally deliveries against the target; for loose stacks, weigh a few representative bundles and count bundles. Crude is fine — a crude count beats a confident guess by a mile.

If the number frightens you

Better in September than February: prices climb and quality falls as winter deepens, so the gap is cheapest closed now — extra straw bought early, hay made from the last cuts, willow lopped and dried, urea-treated straw planned. And remember the ration's other half: winter dry fodder is bulk, not strength — the measured compound feed alongside it is what holds milk and body condition through the cold. Stock both halves to the same horizon; a full straw stack with feed bought "as needed" still leaves January gaps when roads close.

One evening, one notebook, three numbers. February-you will thank September-you.

Want the concentrate side of your winter plan sized too? Call or WhatsApp Falah Enterprises, Authorized GOKA Feeds Distributor, Anantnag.