@conference {40835,
	title = {A farm level model to aid decisions regarding the feeding of concentrates to dairy cattle},
	booktitle = {Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	volume = {56},
	year = {1996},
	month = {Jan},
	pages = {280-284},
	publisher = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	organization = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	abstract = {In recent years dairy farm consultants in New Zealand and Australia  have regularly been asked to provide advice to farmers on whether the  feeding of concentrates to lactating cows on pasture diets is likely to be  economic. The outcome of such a decision is complicated because its  effects on milk production, liveweight change, pasture growth and decay,  and herd reproductive performance are influenced by variables pertaining to  the particular farm and herd involved. Some responses to concentrate inputs  are immediate; others occur in the long term. Information on each response  variable was integrated into a manual decision support framework to provide  a practical decision aid for consultants and farmers. A spreadsheet template  was then developed to reduce calculation time and allow a wider range of  feed and herd situations to be evaluated. The total economic benefits, and  hence breakeven price for concentrates were found to be heavily dependent  on the long term moblisation of liveweight gained, utilisation of extra  pasture grown and changes in the herd},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Neaves PJ and Parker WJ and Holmes CW}
}
