Evaluating Livestock Selling Strategies Based on Forage Availability

The ORAZB simulation model was used to evaluate 4 alternative decision rules to trigger the removal of stocker steers from pasture in order to avoid risk when pasture conditions are suboptimal, Each of the four decision rules was simulated for 8 stocking rates over a 13- year period, Results of the analysis indicated that decision rules which trigger livestock removal based on minimum herbage availability result in shorter grazing periods and higher average daily gain compared with decision rules which trigger removal based on livestock weight loss. Although decision rules based on minimum herbage availability thresholds resulted in the highest weight gain and net returns per hectare, the economic superiority of one herbage availability threshold over another was not pronounced,