MIDAS insights on profitably utilising perennial plants in Hamilton, Victoria

MIDAS is a computer model used to assess the impact of change in a farming system. It describes the biological relationships of a representative farm.The role of the farm modelling component in this project was to:
1. Quantify some principles about feed supply and demand in grazing systems and enhance understanding of the economics of systems that include perennials. The principles that have been quantified are the:
a. value of energy at different times of the year,
b. sensitivity of the system to altering the pasture supply,
c. size of the niche that perennials are filling.
2. Quantify the economic value of varying some parameters of different animal production systems (eg time of lambing, frequency of lambing, genotype.