| Grassland in China is important for livestock production and ecological security due to its large area and varied vegetation types.Under long-term extensive production and management,production and management in grassland animal husbandry in China have been relatively backward for a long time,which makes it difficult to alleviate grassland ecological degradation effectively.The family ranch is the main economic entity for grassland utilization in northern China.Due to historical heritage,profit-incentive,climate change and other reasons,overgrazing and grassland degradation have become normal at the household ranch level.In order to alleviate the low efficiency of pasture production and management,promote farmer's income,and remove the limitations of the harsh environment,it is urgent to replace the traditional management model with an efficient and precise production and management model to achieve optimal allocation of grass and animal resources.The application of simulation models is a powerful tool to rapidly achieve this goal.In the present study,the principles of animal husbandry and ecology were applied,and the modeling method of the Australian ACIAR series StageTWO model was used as a reference.By establishing sub-models to simulate grass grazing and animal metabolic energy balance,economic analysis,and livestock grazing grass-animal balance,an optimal management mode planning algorithm was designed and developed independently.In the process of solving the problem,feeding restriction and preferences were involved.At the same time,from 2011 to 2014,monitoring data on meadow grassland,typical grassland and desert grassland in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region were monitored through semi-structured questionnaire surveys and pasture control comparative tests.According to the analysis of the management mode of the family ranch and grassland ecological status,the pastoral households were divided into experimental households and control households.Based on the successful experience of experimental households,the theory of livestock production was combined with actual production and management.Together with the previous research results,the model for optimized production management of a family ranch was verified.The results showed that:(1)In the process of solving the optimal production management model for a family ranch,a family ranch optimization production model with independent intellectual property rights has been completely developed using VC++programming.The model runs on Windows system with a total of 15296 lines of code and only 3.5 Mbytes of running module.There is no requirement for software installation and the model is easy to operate.(2)Through the inputs and settings for grassland,livestock,economy,environment and production management parameters,the model autonomously made independent decision-making operations,and determined the production and operation plan with the highest economic income.The optimal scheme is presented in the form of charts and tables,including the stocking rate,artificial grassland construction,and the types and quantity of livestock monthly supplementary feed when the net income of the family ranch is maximized under different natural climate conditions.Based on the above-mentioned optimized management mode,the economic income and expenditure of the family ranch were analyzed,and the livestock production schedule and livestock grazing behavior in the optimal management scheme were designed.(3)The validation of the family ranching model in different grassland types in Inner Mongolia showed that the simulation results from the model were in good agreement with experimental results,and that it was suitable for to use for production and management decision-making on family ranches with different grassland types.The specific optimization decision results include:? The most suitable stocking rates for meadow steppe in Ewenki Banner,typical steppe in Baiqi and desert steppe in Siziwang Banner in Inner Mongolia were 1.2 sheepunit/ha/year,1.0 sheepunit/ha/year and 0.7 sheepunit/ha/year,respectively.? Cold season supplementary feeding is a main expenditure of family ranches,accounting for 55%?63%of total expenditure in different grassland types.Artificial grassland management can significantly reduce supplementary feeding expenditure.It is recommended that household ranches in the meadow steppe area of Ewenki Autonomous Banner should develop high-yielding artificial grasslands where conditions allowed.? The simulated values of net income per livestock unit in the meadow steppe in Ewenki Banner,the typical steppe in Baiqi and the desert steppe in Siziwang Banner were increased by 26.6%,39.6%and 98.3%,respectively,compared with the control households.?Optimal management of pastures increased the height and biomass density of perennial and annual forage grasses in different grassland areas,and the trend for non-preferred perennial grass was basically unchanged.However,it should be noted that the density and biomass of non-preferred perennial grass will significantly decrease in meadow steppe.? The production optimization model showed that postponing lambing time in different grassland areas can reduce supplementary feeding expenditures and improve production efficiency. |
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