Pasture assessment involves being able to estimate the quantity and quality of available pasture. For on-farm decision making it usually involves a visual estimation; however, various more objective techniques are available such as the median quadrat technique (see Primefact 324 Measuring herbage mass - the median quadrat technique), the rising and falling plate and capacitance meters and, in the future, via remote sensing.

Pasture assessment can also involve estimates of botanical composition and ground cover. This Primefact discusses the following:

• Why assess pasture?
• Pasture quantity (herbage mass / plant height)
• Pasture quality
• Interaction of herbage mass and digestibility
• Pasture benchmarks