The program allows the simulation of the technical and economic consequences of management changes. The user may simulate current conditions, modify the conditions, and simulate again for comparative results. The program is designed to be fairly intuitive and self-explanatory in its use. The menu includes:
- Access to the program: Press Start introduce the values that best describe your farm and press Generate a farm You can also upload your own farm (utility currently under work)
- In the main page, you can Access to the menu:
-
- Main page Describe the general structure of the farm
- Configuration You can modify the values for the simulation (reproduction, calf-heifer management, facilities). Save changes.
- Economics The user can change the value of economic variables (income prices, milk prices, fixed costs, variable costs,
), labor variables (personnel and salaries), machinery variables (cost and paybacks), and future actions (investments, expansions,
)
- Management The user can implement changes related management decisions (3x milking, feed grouping, culling strategies,
).
- Diseases Most common diseases are described with default values for prevalence and effects (mastitis, retained placenta, metritis, DA, lameness,
). Infectious diseases can also be implemented together with vaccination programs. New diseases can be defined and all default values can be modified by the user.
- Simulation Provides Access to the simulation. The user can define:
-
- Starting date of simulation (January of current year by default)
- Reliability (number of iterations) of simulation (1 to 5): Number 5 recommended and set by default.
- Time of simulation (in months or years): recommended between 3 and 5 years.
- Time-period of results (monthly, trimester, semester, annual).
- Simulation proceeds with the simulation. This process may take 3 to 10 minutes depending on the size of the farm, the time simulated and the level of precision of the simulation.
- Compare simulations allows to generate overlapping graphs and data for comparison of up to 3 different scenarios
- Results Provides results in a summary table, summary graph (accumulated gross margin or period-by-period gross margin) or detailed information classified in: Summary, Demographics, Production, Reproduction, Heifers, Diseases and Economics.