IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v173y2019icp107-118.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Multi-objective simulation and optimisation of dairy sheep farms: Exploring trade-offs between economic and environmental outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Villalba, D.
  • Díez-Unquera, B.
  • Carrascal, A.
  • Bernués, A.
  • Ruiz, R.

Abstract

A decision support tool for sheep farming systems (PASTOR-DSS) was developed to investigate trade-offs between economic and environmental objectives on Spanish dairy sheep farms. The tool combines a hierarchical stochastic simulation model at three levels with a multi-objective optimisation procedure based on genetic algorithms. The first level of simulation includes rumen, reproduction and nutrient balance submodels. These three submodels are integrated into an animal model, which constitutes the second level. The third level is the farm, which includes the flock, the feeding and reproductive management, the availability of feeding resources, and the farm economics. The multi-objective genetic algorithm applies to the farm level. The tool was validated for the different levels of simulation, with outputs having an acceptable level of accuracy and representing correctly the links between feeding and reproduction. The tool was used to optimise the Latxa breed farming systems of the Basque Country (Spain). Two farm types were simulated: a COAST farm located in low-altitude Atlantic conditions and longer grazing period, and the INLAND farm located in mountain areas with a shorter grazing period. The optimisation provided a set of optimal solutions with different economic and environmental (N excretion) performances. The optimal solutions increased the financial margin over feed costs in both farms (+24% and + 22% for COAST and INLAND, respectively). The final space of solutions showed a clear trade-off between the economic and environmental performance (nitrogen excretion). The difference in the financial margin over feed costs between the solutions could be interpreted as the opportunity cost of greening in policy design, i.e., the payment that farmers should receive to change their farming methods to reduce nitrogen pollution.

Suggested Citation

  • Villalba, D. & Díez-Unquera, B. & Carrascal, A. & Bernués, A. & Ruiz, R., 2019. "Multi-objective simulation and optimisation of dairy sheep farms: Exploring trade-offs between economic and environmental outcomes," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 107-118.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:173:y:2019:i:c:p:107-118
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2019.01.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X18301586
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agsy.2019.01.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. D.G. Mayer & J.A. Belward & K. Burrage, 1998. "Optimizing simulation models of agricultural systems," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 82(0), pages 219-232, August.
    2. Mayer, D. G. & Kinghorn, B. P. & Archer, A. A., 2005. "Differential evolution - an easy and efficient evolutionary algorithm for model optimisation," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 315-328, March.
    3. Bohan, A. & Shalloo, L. & Malcolm, B. & Ho, C.K.M. & Creighton, P. & Boland, T.M. & McHugh, N., 2016. "Description and validation of the Teagasc Lamb Production Model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 124-134.
    4. Ashfield, A. & Crosson, P. & Wallace, M., 2013. "Simulation modelling of temperate grassland based dairy calf to beef production systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 41-50.
    5. Villalba, D. & Casasus, I. & Sanz, A. & Bernues, A. & Estany, J. & Revilla, R., 2006. "Stochastic simulation of mountain beef cattle systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 414-434, September.
    6. Alford, Andrew R. & Griffith, Garry R. & Davies, Lloyd, 2003. "Livestock Farming Systems in the Northern Tablelands of NSW: An Economic Analysis," Research Reports 28005, New South Wales Department of Primary Industries Research Economists.
    7. Groot, Jeroen C.J. & Oomen, Gerard J.M. & Rossing, Walter A.H., 2012. "Multi-objective optimization and design of farming systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 63-77.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amer Ait Sidhoum & K Hervé Dakpo & Laure Latruffe, 2022. "Trade-offs between economic, environmental and social sustainability on farms using a latent class frontier efficiency model: Evidence for Spanish crop farms," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-17, January.
    2. Min, Xinyuan & Sok, Jaap & de Zwart, Feije & Oude Lansink, Alfons, 2024. "Multi-stakeholder multi-objective greenhouse design optimization," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    3. Li, Jiangong & Akdeniz, Neslihan & Kim, Harrison Hyung Min & Gates, Richard S. & Wang, Xinlei & Wang, Kaiying, 2021. "Optimal manure utilization chain for distributed animal farms: Model development and a case study from Hangzhou, China," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    4. Solano-Blanco, Alfaima L. & González, Jaime E. & Medaglia, Andrés L., 2023. "Production planning decisions in the broiler chicken supply chain with growth uncertainty," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 10(C).
    5. Heidari, Mohammad Davoud & Turner, Ian & Ardestani-Jaafari, Amir & Pelletier, Nathan, 2021. "Operations research for environmental assessment of crop-livestock production systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    6. Aleksander Grzelak, 2020. "The Objectives of Farm Operations—Evidence from a Region in Poland," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kamilaris, C. & Dewhurst, R.J. & Vosough Ahmadi, B. & Crosson, P. & Alexander, P., 2020. "A bio-economic model for cost analysis of alternative management strategies in beef finishing systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    2. Jalilov, Shokhrukh-Mirzo & Rahman, Wakilur & Palash, Salauddin & Jahan, Hasneen & Mainuddin, Mohammed & Ward, Frank A., 2022. "Exploring strategies to control the cost of food security: Evidence from Bangladesh," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    3. Bergez, J. -E. & Garcia, F. & Lapasse, L., 2004. "A hierarchical partitioning method for optimizing irrigation strategies," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 235-253, June.
    4. Schreefel, L. & de Boer, I.J.M. & Timler, C.J. & Groot, J.C.J. & Zwetsloot, M.J. & Creamer, R.E. & Schrijver, A. Pas & van Zanten, H.H.E. & Schulte, R.P.O., 2022. "How to make regenerative practices work on the farm: A modelling framework," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    5. Moojen, Fernanda Gomes & Ryschawy, Julie & dos Santos, Davi Teixeira & Barth Neto, Armindo & Vieira, Paulo Cardozo & Portella, Elisa & de Faccio Carvalho, Paulo César, 2022. "The farm coaching experience to support the transition to integrated crop–livestock systems: From gaming to action," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    6. Timler, Carl & Alvarez, Stéphanie & DeClerck, Fabrice & Remans, Roseline & Raneri, Jessica & Estrada Carmona, Natalia & Mashingaidze, Nester & Abe Chatterjee, Shantonu & Chiang, Tsai Wei & Termote, Ce, 2020. "Exploring solution spaces for nutrition-sensitive agriculture in Kenya and Vietnam," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    7. Karner, Katrin & Schmid, Erwin & Schneider, Uwe A. & Mitter, Hermine, 2021. "Computing stochastic Pareto frontiers between economic and environmental goals for a semi-arid agricultural production region in Austria," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    8. Britz, Wolfgang & Ciaian, Pavel & Gocht, Alexander & Kanellopoulos, Argyris & Kremmydas, Dimitrios & Müller, Marc & Petsakos, Athanasios & Reidsma, Pytrik, 2021. "A design for a generic and modular bio-economic farm model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    9. Cui, Yunfei & Geng, Zhiqiang & Zhu, Qunxiong & Han, Yongming, 2017. "Review: Multi-objective optimization methods and application in energy saving," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 681-704.
    10. Cooper, Gregory S. & Rich, Karl M. & Shankar, Bhavani & Rana, Vinay & Ratna, Nazmun N. & Kadiyala, Suneetha & Alam, Mohammad J. & Nadagouda, Sharan B., 2021. "Identifying ‘win-win-win’ futures from inequitable value chain trade-offs: A system dynamics approach," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    11. Carina Barros & Gabriela Mendonça & Augusto Gameiro, 2017. "Farm-Boarding School Management: Linear Programming Contributions in the Search of Self-Sufficiency and Optimization," Journal of Agricultural Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(3), pages 1-59, February.
    12. Mayer, D. G. & Belward, J. A. & Burrage, K., 2001. "Robust parameter settings of evolutionary algorithms for the optimisation of agricultural systems models," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 199-213, September.
    13. Zou, Haiyang & Fan, Junliang & Zhang, Fucang & Xiang, Youzhen & Wu, Lifeng & Yan, Shicheng, 2020. "Optimization of drip irrigation and fertilization regimes for high grain yield, crop water productivity and economic benefits of spring maize in Northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    14. Cortez-Arriola, José & Groot, Jeroen C.J. & Rossing, Walter A.H. & Scholberg, Johannes M.S. & Améndola Massiotti, Ricardo D. & Tittonell, Pablo, 2016. "Alternative options for sustainable intensification of smallholder dairy farms in North-West Michoacán, Mexico," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 22-32.
    15. Kearney, M. & O'Riordan, E.G. & Byrne, N. & Breen, J. & Crosson, P., 2023. "Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in pasture-based dairy-beef production systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    16. Kocjančič, Tina & Debeljak, Marko & Žgajnar, Jaka & Juvančič, Luka, 2018. "Incorporation of emergy into multiple-criteria decision analysis for sustainable and resilient structure of dairy farms in Slovenia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 71-83.
    17. Dowson, Oscar & Philpott, Andy & Mason, Andrew & Downward, Anthony, 2019. "A multi-stage stochastic optimization model of a pastoral dairy farm," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 274(3), pages 1077-1089.
    18. Chopin, Pierre & Blazy, Jean-Marc & Guindé, Loïc & Wery, Jacques & Doré, Thierry, 2017. "A framework for designing multi-functional agricultural landscapes: Application to Guadeloupe Island," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 316-329.
    19. Notte, Gastón & Cancela, Héctor & Pedemonte, Martín & Chilibroste, Pablo & Rossing, Walter & Groot, Jeroen C.J., 2020. "A multi-objective optimization model for dairy feeding management," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    20. Accatino, Francesco & Tonda, Alberto & Dross, Camille & Léger, François & Tichit, Muriel, 2019. "Trade-offs and synergies between livestock production and other ecosystem services," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 58-72.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:173:y:2019:i:c:p:107-118. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.