Economics of Ewe Management

MIDAS was selected as the modelling tool for this economic component of the project because it represents the whole flock and it includes a powerful feed budgeting module that optimises animal and pasture management across the whole farm. 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 and calculates the profitability of the whole flock based on the productivity of each class of stock and commodity prices and the farm carrying capacity calculated in the detailed feed budget.

Being an optimizing model it calculates the optimum stocking rate and optimum rate of grain feeding that will maximize profitability while achieving the targets specified for the ewes. The model also accounts for changes in flock structure and the change in ewe energy requirements that result from increasing lambing percentage and the number of ewes pregnant or lactating with singles or twins when ewe nutrition is altered.

Including the biology that has been quantified as part of the Lifetimewool project in economic analyses, altered the outcome about the most profitable nutrition strategy for ewes that had tradionally been accepted. 

The economic analysis was conducted by John Young of the Farming Systems Analysis Service, based in Kojonup, WA. John is recognised as one of Australia's most respected farm modelers and conducts analysis for many other major projects nationally.