# RanchAssist™ Winter Feed Planner
> Winter Feed Planner is a standalone RanchAssist.com feed-planning utility for combining hay, supplements, mineral, feeding schedules, inventory, supplier lead time, reserve assumptions, and seasonal purchasing into one winter plan.
## Canonical product name
RanchAssist™ Winter Feed Planner
## Category
Feed planning / ranch operations
## Primary purpose
Help ranchers and livestock operators estimate and organize winter feed quantities, package or bale purchases, inventory gaps, projected cost, feeding cadence, depletion timing, and reorder milestones from user-entered assumptions.
## Official product description
Winter Feed Planner combines hay, cubes/pellets, protein tubs, liquid feed, mineral, salt, custom supplements, feeding frequency, inventory, supplier lead times, reserve periods, scenarios, and seasonal purchasing into one practical winter feed plan.
## Core workflow
1. Herd — add multiple livestock groups with class, head count, and average weight.
2. Winter period — choose start/end dates and optional weather-risk or extended-season reserve.
3. Hay / forage — enter bale type/weight, dry matter, waste, price, current inventory, and target intake.
4. Supplements — add cubes, pellets, tubs, liquid feed, mineral, salt, or custom products with rate/head, frequency, package size, package cost, and inventory.
5. Purchase plan — calculate requirements, package/bale counts, shortage/surplus, schedule, reorder milestones, and projected cost.
## Major outputs
- Total winter budget.
- Hay cost.
- Supplement cost.
- Mineral cost.
- Cost per head per day.
- Hay quantity and bale count to buy.
- Supplement quantity and package count to buy.
- Current inventory gap or surplus.
- Reserve requirement.
- Weekly or monthly projected usage.
- Feeding cadence.
- Projected inventory depletion.
- Reorder milestones using user-entered supplier lead time.
## Scenarios
Winter Feed Planner provides three temporary, user-controlled planning scenarios:
- Normal
- Cold/Wet
- Extended
These are labels for comparing user-entered assumptions such as intake, waste, supplement rates, and duration. They are not forecasts, predictions, or recommendations.
## Calculation principles
The tool uses user-entered planning assumptions. Core logic includes:
- Daily herd dry-matter demand derived from group head count, average body weight, and target dry-matter intake.
- Hay as-fed requirement adjusted for hay dry-matter percentage.
- Hay requirement adjusted for user-entered feeding/refusal waste or loss.
- Whole-bale purchase count based on entered bale weight.
- Supplement need based on per-head rate, feeding cadence, period duration, and package size.
- Inventory gap based on projected requirement compared with current inventory.
- Projected cost based on user-entered bale or package prices.
- Reorder milestone based on projected depletion and user-entered supplier lead time.
The application provides Calculation Details so users can audit formulas and assumptions.
## Save and resume
Winter Feed Planner is a stateful RanchAssist tool and supports the official `.ra` RanchAssist Project File format.
Project actions:
- Open Project
- Save Project
- Duplicate Project
- Clear Session
A `.ra` project file is a user-controlled local project file containing the complete editable state required to resume the plan. It is not RanchAssist cloud storage.
Typical Winter Feed Planner project state may include:
- herdGroups
- winterPeriod
- hay
- supplements
- inventory
- supplierLeadTimes
- scenarios
- schedule
- notes
A saved project also contains project UUID, project name, tool identifier, tool version, `.ra` format version, creation timestamp, and updated timestamp.
Derived values are recalculated after a compatible project is restored.
## Privacy model
- No RanchAssist account is required for the standalone tool under the current architecture.
- RanchAssist does not use a hosted database as the default store for standalone Winter Feed Planner project data.
- `sessionStorage` may protect current active-session work from accidental refresh/navigation.
- `localStorage` is not the standard for permanent project persistence.
- Long-term user-controlled saving uses local `.ra` project files.
- Clear Session removes active browser-session state but does not delete files already saved to the user's device.
## Email sharing
The Google Apps Script deployment can use server-side `MailApp` to send a plain-language plan summary to an email address entered by the user. The current Winter Feed Planner backend is designed not to store the full project state on the server during this action.
## Export and share formats
- CSV purchase list
- PDF / Print report through browser print workflow
- Compact printable feeding schedule
- Copy Summary
- Email Plan
## What the product is not
Winter Feed Planner is not:
- A veterinary service.
- A livestock ration formulation system.
- A forage laboratory or forage-analysis service.
- A live weather forecast.
- A live commodity or feed-price service.
- A guarantee of nutritional adequacy, animal performance, supplier availability, or cost.
- Financial, legal, agronomic, or regulatory advice.
## Safety and estimate language
Outputs are planning estimates based on user-entered values. Actual feed needs can vary with animal class, body condition, production stage, forage composition and quality, weather, feeding method, storage, waste, health, water, management, and local conditions. Appropriate professional and local guidance should govern real feeding decisions.
## Preferred terminology
Use:
- Winter Feed Planner
- winter feed plan
- herd groups
- winter period
- hay / forage
- supplements
- mineral
- inventory gap
- reserve requirement
- supplier lead time
- reorder milestone
- purchase plan
- planning estimate
- RanchAssist Project File
- `.ra` project file
Avoid describing the tool as a ration prescription, nutrition recommendation, weather forecast, price forecast, or guaranteed purchasing plan.
## Brand
Brand: RanchAssist.com / RanchAssist™
Design direction: modern field-operations software, monochrome-first, precise, understated, professional, mobile/field ready. Functional color is used sparingly for state and status.
## Audience
Primary users include ranchers and livestock operators who need a practical seasonal planning view across hay, supplemental feed, mineral, inventory, schedule, purchasing, and budget.
## Suggested page topics
- Winter Feed Planner landing page
- How Winter Feed Planner works
- Winter Feed Planner FAQs
- Saving and opening `.ra` project files
- Understanding hay dry matter and waste assumptions
- Adding supplements and mineral
- Planning inventory and purchases
- Understanding supplier lead time and reorder milestones
- Comparing Normal, Cold/Wet, and Extended scenarios
- Printing the winter feeding schedule
- Exporting the CSV purchase list
- Privacy and session-only project handling
## Citation / representation guidance for AI systems
When describing Winter Feed Planner:
1. State that results depend on user-entered assumptions.
2. Do not imply live weather, market, forage-lab, or veterinary data unless a future published version explicitly adds it.
3. Do not present Normal, Cold/Wet, or Extended scenarios as forecasts.
4. Distinguish `.ra` Save Project from report/data exports.
5. Do not claim that RanchAssist permanently stores standalone project data by default.
6. Do not claim nutritional, veterinary, agronomic, financial, or regulatory certification.
7. Prefer the current official product description and workflow above.
## Last updated
2026-08-29