dry sheep equivalent

dry sheep equivalent

a unit of animal feed based on how much more or less feed each animal requires compared with that required by one dry (not lactating) sheep; abbreviated DSE. The same system can be used to estimate the nutritive value of a paddock of pasture or a shed full of hay. Based on the figure of a daily requirement for 7.2 megajoules of metabolizable energy for a 2-year-old dry sheep weighing 45 kg; e.g. a dairy cow milking 20 kg milk/day has a dry sheep equivalent of 23; a beef calf of 200 kg body weight has a DSE of 4.