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Northern Australian pasture and beef systems. 2. Validation and use of the Sustainable Grazing Systems (SGS) whole-farm biophysical model

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Doran-Browne, N. A., Bray, S. G., Johnson, I. R., O'Reagain, P. J. and Eckard, R. J. (2014) Northern Australian pasture and beef systems. 2. Validation and use of the Sustainable Grazing Systems (SGS) whole-farm biophysical model. Animal Production Science, 54 (12). pp. 1995-2002.

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Article Link: https://doi.org/10.1071/AN14569

Publisher URL: https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/AN14569

Abstract

The Sustainable Grazing Systems (SGS) model is a biophysical, mechanistic whole-farm model that simulates pasture production based on climate and soil data. While the SGS model has been extensively used for southern temperate systems, the model has yet to be evaluated for use in the tropical rangeland systems of Australia. New pasture parameter sets were developed in SGS to represent groups of grasses with the following common characteristics: (1) 3P grasses represented tropical rangeland grasses that were perennial, palatable and productive, and (2) annual tropical grasses that include both productive and less productive grass species. Fifteen years of data from the long-term Wambiana grazing trial ~70 km south-west of Charters Towers, Queensland, were used to validate the model. The results showed that SGS is capable of representing northern Australian beef systems with modelled outputs for total standing dry matter and steer liveweight in agreement with the year-to-year variation in measured data over three different soil types and two stocking rates. Recommendations for further model development are made, such as incorporating fire, tree growth and the use of urea supplementation in the model. Further testing is required to verify that the new pasture parameter sets are suitable for other regions in northern Australia.

Item Type:Article
Business groups:Animal Science
Additional Information:Reproduced with permission from © CSIRO Publishing. Access to published version is available via Publisher’s website.
Keywords:cattle, modelling, rangelands.
Subjects:Agriculture > Agriculture (General) > Special aspects of agriculture as a whole > Sustainable agriculture
Agriculture > Agriculture (General) > Agriculture and the environment
Agriculture > Agriculture (General) > Agricultural meteorology. Crops and climate
Agriculture > Agriculture (General) > Agricultural conservation
Agriculture > Agriculture (General) > Conservation of natural resources
Animal culture > Cattle
Animal culture > Rangelands. Range management. Grazing
Animal culture > Feeds and feeding. Animal nutrition
Live Archive:25 Oct 2021 05:38
Last Modified:25 Oct 2021 05:38

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