Kaji field guide
Poultry feed runway: estimate how many days your feed will last
Feed runway answers a simple operational question: if the flock keeps consuming feed at roughly the current rate, how many days will the stock on hand last? It is an estimate, not a promise, because consumption changes as birds grow.
Working formula
Feed runway (days) = usable feed stock ÷ expected daily feed use
Both quantities must use the same unit, such as kilograms.
Start with usable stock, not the purchase invoice
Runway should use the feed physically available for the flock or farm scope you are evaluating. Feed already consumed, transferred elsewhere or reserved for another flock should not inflate the estimate.
Where inventory is managed by house or flock, keep that scope consistent. A farm-wide stock total can be misleading if some bags are not actually available to the flock you are planning for.
Choose a realistic daily-use estimate
Recent average consumption is often more useful than a single day because feed use can vary with bird age, weather, management and logging timing. For a growing broiler flock, yesterday’s consumption may understate next week’s requirement.
The safest operational approach is to treat runway as a moving forecast and recalculate it whenever stock or consumption changes materially.
Add a reorder buffer
A stock-out date is only useful if it leaves time to act. The reorder point should account for supplier lead time, transport delays, weekends, cash availability and a small safety margin appropriate to the farm.
For example, if feed normally takes two days to arrive, waiting until the runway reaches two days leaves no room for delay. The alert threshold should sit above the expected procurement lead time.
Watch for unit errors
Runway calculations fail quickly when bags and kilograms are mixed. Convert bag quantities to kilograms using the actual bag size used by the farm, and do not assume every feed product comes in the same package size.
Practical checklist
- Confirm current usable stock in kilograms.
- Use recent flock-specific consumption where possible.
- Recalculate as birds grow or ration changes.
- Keep bag-to-kilogram conversions explicit.
- Set a reorder threshold above supplier lead time.
- Investigate sudden consumption changes before trusting the forecast.
Use the same records in Kaji
Feed & inventory
Kaji keeps these calculations connected to the flock, inventory, health and money records that support them instead of asking you to maintain a separate analysis notebook.