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Title: USING THE GPFARM DSS FOR EVALUATING DRYLAND CROPPING SYSTEM PRODUCTION AND ECONOMICS IN THE WESTCENTRAL GREAT PLAINS

Author
item McMaster, Gregory
item DEER-ASCOUGH, L - COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
item Ascough Ii, James
item PETERSON, G - COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
item Dunn, Gale
item Palic, Daniel
item Shaffer, Marvin
item Weltz, Mark

Submitted to: American Society of Agronomy
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/2000
Publication Date: 11/5/2000
Citation: 2000 Annual Meetings Abstracts, American Society of Agronomy/Crop Science Society of America/Soil Science Society of America. Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 5-9, 2000. pp 22.

Interpretive Summary: A major goal of the GPFARM Decision Support System is to aid farmers and consultants in strategic planning for each field within their farm. To achieve this goal, the GPFARM DSS must be able to simulate crop production and the associated economics of different cropping systems and management practices for specific fields/sites. This work evaluated GPFARM simulation of crop production and economics. GPFARM uses a modified EPIC crop growth model to simulate crop production, and a new economics model was developed to calculate economics. The crop production and economics of various dryland cropping systems of winter wheat, corn, sunflower, proso millet, and hay millet in the westcentral Great Plains were simulated. Model evaluation consisted of 1) a validation data set consisting of three sites in eastern Colorado (10+ years), 2) on-farm testing of Colorado and Nebraska farms, and 3) running scenarios of different cropping systems and management practices and having experts (both farmers and scientists) judge the results for reasonableness and usefulness.

Technical Abstract: A major goal of the GPFARM Decision Support System is to aid farmers and consultants in strategic planning for each field within their farm. To achieve this goal, the GPFARM DSS must be able to simulate crop production and the associated economics of different cropping systems and management practices for specific fields/sites. This work evaluated GPFARM simulation of crop production and economics. GPFARM uses a modified EPIC crop growth model to simulate crop production, and a new economics model was developed to calculate economics. The crop production and economics of various dryland cropping systems of winter wheat, corn, sunflower, proso millet, and hay millet in the westcentral Great Plains were simulated. Model evaluation consisted of 1) a validation data set consisting of three sites in eastern Colorado (10+ years), 2) on-farm testing of Colorado and Nebraska farms, and 3) running scenarios of different cropping systems and management practices and having experts (both farmers and scientists) judge the results for reasonableness and usefulness.