Optimisation models are a key tool for the analysis of emerging policies, price sets, and technologies within grazing systems. A detailed nonlinear optimisation model of a New Zealand dairy farming system is described. The framework is notable for its rich portrayal of pasture and cow biology...

Simulation models are valuable tools in the analysis of complex, highly constrained economic systems unsuitable for solution by mathematical programming. However, model size may hamper the efforts of practitioners to efficiently identify the most valuable configurations. This paper investigates...

Use of lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) pastures in crop rotations has been proposed as a method to enhance weed management options for growers facing herbicide resistance in Western Australia. An existing model for analysing herbicide resistance in the important crop weed annual ryegrass (Lolium...

This short paper provides a simple introduction on how a simulation model implemented in Microsoft Excel® can be optimised using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming and the compressed simulated annealing algorithm (Ohlmann et al., 2004; Ohlmann and Thomas, 2007). The standard simulated...

Many important problems in agricultural and natural resource economics concern an intertemporal choice between alternate dynamic systems. This significance has motivated a theoretical literature generalizing the necessary conditions of Optimal Control Theory to multiple-phase problems. However,...

Environmental policy evaluation is characterised by a paucity of information. Bounded sets may be more appropriate for representing this ambiguity than traditional probability distributions. A formal calibration method for regional policy models, positive mathematical programming, is thus...

The increasing prevalence of anthelmintic (drench) resistance in gastrointestinal parasite populations is decreasing the profitability of the sheep industry in Western Australia (WA). A strategy, referred to as refugia management, has the potential to delay the development of resistant parasites...

A target to reduce phosphorus flows into the Gippsland Lakes in south-eastern Australia by 40 per cent to improve water quality has previously been established by stakeholders. An integrated analysis at the catchment scale is undertaken to assess the agricultural land management changes required...

Implications of increasing labour cost and development of herbicide resistance for profitable weed management in Philippine rice farming systems are investigated. The study employs RIMPhil (Resistance and Integrated Management in the Philippines), a bioeconomic simulation model developed to...

This study involves the application of a random-effects double-hurdle model to survey data to identify the farm-level factors affecting the adoption and intensity of herbicide use in rice production in the Philippines. Results broadly indicate apparent differences in the degree to which...