Northern Australian pasture and beef systems. 2. Validation and use of the Sustainable Grazing Systems (SGS) whole-farm biophysical model

Abstract

The Sustainable Grazing Systems (SGS) model is a biophysical, mechanistic whole-farm model that simulates pasture production based on climate and soil data. While the SGS model has been extensively used for southern temperate systems, the model has yet to be evaluated for use in the tropical rangeland systems of Australia. New pasture parameter sets were developed in SGS to represent groups of grasses with the following common characteristics: (1) 3P grasses represented tropical rangeland grasses that were perennial, palatable and productive, and (2) annual tropical grasses that include both productive and less productive grass species. Fifteen years of data from the long-term Wambiana grazi..