Summary
The objectives of the project were to:
· further develop the structure of the model to better reflect changing market conditions and changing industry priorities. Possible choices could be to ignore the backgrounding sector, or separate the northern and southern cattle production systems, or separate specific export markets for grass-fed or grain-fed product, etc;
· update the input data set on which the model solution is based so that model results better reflect the current industry structure and the current operating environment of the cattle and beef industry;
· provide the capability of choosing alternate parameter sets and of incorporating routine sensitivity analyses of these choices;
· further develop a "user-friendly" version of the model for more routine use by MLA analysts and decision-makers;
· provide MLA with quantitative information on the market level net returns to past R&D investments or new R&D proposals. This information could relate to particular R&D projects, or broader R&D funding scenarios involving Key Programs.
This project was terminated due to the departure of key staff from the Beef CRC.
