Perennial pasture persistence: the economic perspective

Abstract

Persistence of pasture in grazing systems has technical and economic dimensions. Profit from investment in pasture is maximised when the profit from the pasture is maximised over cycles of investments in pasture over the life of the farm business. The economic decision-rule is that an existing pasture should be replaced when the expected extra average addition to farm profit per year over the whole of the expected life of the next cycle of pasture investment exceeds the expected addition to farm profit from one more year of the existing pasture. This profit-maximising decision-rule means that the persistence of pasture is an economic phenomenon to be accounted for over several cycles of inve..