Modelling beef herd management decisions
Abstract
The aim of this work was to analyse decision-makingof cattle stock breeders according to herd management: rules, occurrences of interventions, relations with theproject of production. The management of the herdwas described and formalized using data collected during 2 successive surveys on 12 farms specialized in beef production. Three categories of indicators mobilized by the stock breeders can be discriminated: indicators dealing with the instantaneous state of theanimals, indicators dealing with the individual history of the animals (life time performance) and exogenous indicators, independent of the animals (state of the nutritional resource, economic context). According tothe project of production, these indicators are mobilized differently by the stock breeders and 4 prototypes of herd management were then defined. This kind of analysis will be used in a modelling build-up process tosimulate herd functioning.
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