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Submitted to: Proceedings of the Northeast Regional Agricultural Engineering Service
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 1/13/2005 Publication Date: 3/15/2005 Citation: Rotz, C.A. 2005. Integrated farm system model. In Dairy Manure Management: Treatment, Handing, and Community Relations. Proceedings of the Northeast Regional Agricultural Engineering Service. p. 219-225. Interpretive Summary: An interpretive summary is not required. Technical Abstract: With tighter profit margins and increasing environmental constraints, strategic planning of farm production systems is becoming both more important and more difficult. This is especially true for our animal-based agriculture in the northeast. Animal production is complex with a number of interacting processes that include crop and pasture production, crop harvest, feed storage, grazing, feeding, and manure handling. Computer simulation provides a useful procedure for integrating these processes to predict the long-term performance, environmental impact, and economics of production systems. One model, the Integrated Farm System Model, simulates and integrates the many biological and physical processes in a farm production system. Crop production, feed use, and the return of manure nutrients back to the land are simulated over many years of weather. Simulated performance is used to determine production costs, income, and farm net return for each year. This tool has been used to evaluate many cropping, feeding, and manure handling strategies in dairy production. The Integrated Farm System Model is a Windows type program that functions on all of the major Windows operating systems. The model is available from the Internet site of the Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit (http://pswmru.arsup.psu.edu). |
