DECISION-SUPPORT SOFTWARE FOR ESTIMATING THE ECONOMIC-EFFICIENCY OF GRAZINGLAND PRODUCTION

Decision support software has evolved in a number of disciplines to fa cilitate efficient allocation of resources. Such tools are especially useful where the response of complex systems to human activity are dif ficult to predict, Decision support systems empower managers to rapidl y analyze the ecological and economic implications of alternative mana gement strategies. The Grazingland Alternative Analysis Tool (GAAT), h as been developed to estimate the economic efficiency of a Ride range of grazingland production systems. Systems that can be analyzed, eithe r individually or in combination, include livestock, wildlife, leased grazing, grain and forage crops, wood products and other non-forage cr ops, The planning horizon, discount rate, available forage, consumptio n by class of animal, herd management practices, product yields, produ ct and input prices, and improvement investments must be specified by the user, The GAAT program calculates the resulting annual forage bala nce for all enterprises being analyzed and the net present value and i nternal rate of return for the specified management interventions duri ng the planning period, Two examples are presented to demonstrate the flexibility of GAAT for analyzing the economic efficiency of grazingla nd production systems, The first example analyzes the use of prescribe d burning to control Ashe juniper (Juniper ashei Buckholz) and the sec ond determines the economic effect of changing a dairy from a concentr ate-dependent to a grazing-dependent system.