Trail Shanelle, Ward Frank A
New Mexico State University, Water Science and Management Program, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 88011, USA.
New Mexico State University, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Business, Water Science and Management Program, College of ACES, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 88011, USA.
Heliyon. 2024 Jul 30;10(15):e35254. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e35254. eCollection 2024 Aug 15.
Improving the economic performance of range forage in drylands internationally faces challenges from economic, ecological, and climate stress. Stakeholders in these drylands wish to protect range forage ecosystems while assuring economic viability of ranching. Despite several recent research achievements, little work to date has integrated relationships among precipitation, grazing pressure, animal performance, and forage production to protect ranching incomes faced with economic, ecological, and climate stress in dryland areas. This work addresses that gap by developing an empirical mathematical programming model for optimizing economic performance of livestock grazing on range forage ecosystems that adapt to several stressors. Its unique contribution is to formulate and apply a ranch income optimization model calibrated using positive mathematical programming. The model replicates observed economic, forage, and climate conditions while accounting for interacting relations among stocking rates, forage conditions, grazing pressure, animal performance, and ranch economic productivity. Results show ranch incomes ranging from about $5 to $88 per acre and marginal values of forage ranging from $0.01 to $0.12 per pound of forage, depending on economic, ecological, and climate conditions. Results reveal how all these stressors affect economically optimized choices of grazing levels, ranch income, and economic values of forage for a range of six biomes seen in the US west. Results help livestock ranchers to adjust stocking and forage choices as well as farm policymakers who seek flexible government programs to adapt to changes in economic, ecological, and climate conditions. The work's importance comes from applicability to forage management problems in dry regions internationally.
在国际上，提高旱地牧场草料的经济性能面临着来自经济、生态和气候压力方面的挑战。这些旱地的利益相关者希望保护牧场草料生态系统，同时确保畜牧业的经济可行性。尽管最近有几项研究成果，但迄今为止，几乎没有工作将降水、放牧压力、动物性能和草料生产之间的关系整合起来，以保护面临旱地经济、生态和气候压力的牧场收入。这项工作通过开发一个实证数学规划模型来解决这一差距，该模型用于优化适应多种压力源的牧场草料生态系统上的牲畜放牧的经济性能。其独特贡献在于制定并应用一个使用正数学规划校准的牧场收入优化模型。该模型复制了观察到的经济、草料和气候条件，同时考虑了载畜率、草料条件、放牧压力、动物性能和牧场经济生产力之间的相互作用关系。结果表明，根据经济、生态和气候条件，牧场收入每英亩约为5美元至88美元，草料边际价值为每磅草料0.01美元至0.12美元。结果揭示了所有这些压力源如何影响美国西部六种生物群落范围内放牧水平、牧场收入和草料经济价值的经济优化选择。结果有助于牧场主调整载畜量和草料选择，也有助于寻求灵活政府项目以适应经济、生态和气候条件变化的农业政策制定者。这项工作的重要性源于其适用于国际干旱地区的草料管理问题。
