ECOWEIGHT 2.0 – C programs for modelling the economic efficiency of production systems in beef and dairy cattle (short communication)

Abstract. Two C programs were written on the basis of a bio-economic model for a wide range of cattle production systems. The model simulates the life-cycle production of a beef or dairy cow herd and the growth performance of offspring in rearing and fattening. The Markov chain approach was used to simulate herd dynamics. The program calculates the structure of the integrated production system in its stationary state, the economic efficiency of the system expressed as a function of biological traits of animals and of management and economic parameters, the number of discounted expressions for direct and maternal traits transmitted by breeding animals and the economic weights for 16 economically important traits for beef and 21 traits for dairy cattle. The program is freely available on request.