Ruminant parameters general

CLEM.Resources.RuminantParametersGeneral

Provides the general breed parameters.

This component is placed as a child of the Ruminant parameters holder for each Ruminant type and holds the general parameters to describe the size and ageing of the breed.

The following breed parameters are provided by user level and category

These farm level parameters are usually specified for each simulation and available for all user levels.

These parameters define the breed name and aspects such as the size of individuals.

This is the name of the breed or type of ruminant for which the related parameters are defined. This is different to the name provided in the user interface tree for this Ruminant parameters general component. It is the name of the component in the tree that will be provided in drop down lists for managing ruminants in your simulation. For example, there may be a breeding herd and trade herd used in the simulation. These could be named "Breeding" and "Trade" in the tree, but both use the parameters for Bos indicus and would use copies of the same component (from a toolbox or another simulation) and these would have this breed property set to "Bos indicus"

Name Breed
Category Breed
Sub-category General
Location

Ruminant.Parameters, Ruminant.Parameters.General

This is the weight (in kg) of one animal equivalent. For example, for cattle this could be a standard steer weight or you may wish to report sheep as dry sheep equivalents (DSE) or the entire mixed herd in DSE. Most commonly for cattle, this is the weight of a breeder female of average condition. This value is used to calculate the number of animal equivalents in the herd.

Name BaseAnimalEquivalent
Category Farm
Sub-category General
Location

Ruminant.Parameters, Ruminant.Parameters.General

Birth mass as proportion of female SRW.

This property accepts an array of values [singlet,twins,triplets..] the length of which must match the MultipleBirthRate plus 1 as we also need to include the single birth weight. For example [0.09, 0.07] sets the weight of single births to 9% of female SRW, while twins would be 7% of female SRW.

Name BirthScalar
Category Breed
Sub-category General
Location

Ruminant.Parameters.General

This is the age where natural weaning will take place if not weaned by management (see Wean ruminants).

The gestation length will be used for this value if 0 is supplied as this parameter.

This property is an Age Specifier type to determine this age in days.

Name NaturalWeaningAge
Category Breed
Sub-category General
Location

Ruminant.Parameters.General

The standard reference weight (kg) of a female breeder in mid condition.

See Grow ruminants for details on the use of Standard Reference Weight.

Name SRWFemale
Category Farm
Sub-category General
Location

Ruminant.Parameters.General

The multiplier to determine the SRW of castrated males.

Name SRWCastrateMaleMultiplier
Category Farm
Sub-category General
Location

Ruminant.Parameters.General

The multiplier to determine the SRW of breeding males.

Name SRWMaleMultiplier
Category Farm
Sub-category General
Location

Ruminant.Parameters.General

These parameters relate to growth.

The coefficient for calculating growth rate for normalised animal weight. Parameter CN1 from Frier 2012.

Name AgeGrowthRateCoefficient_CN1
Category Farm
Sub-category General
Location

Ruminant.Parameters, Ruminant.Parameters.General

An array of three values (entered separated by commas) defining the minimum, normal (middle) and maximum values to use for the Body Condition Score where the mid score represents an animal with the average expected normal weight for age. For sheep and cattle this is usually on a scale from 0 to 5 with a value of 3 representing the normal weight for age. Values less than 3 represent underweight with a greater chance of mortality though being underweight at the lowest scores. Scores greater than 3 represent an animal in better than average condition. The score is limited to the minimum and maximum values. See Individual ruminant for details of the calculation of Body Condition Score property.

Name BCScoreRange
Category Farm
Sub-category Growth
Location

Ruminant.Parameters.General

The rate at which the ratio of animal live weight to normalised weight equates to each unit change in the body condition score away from the normal score when the animal weight equals the normalised weight for age (i.e. a ratio of 1). See Individual ruminant for details of the calculation of Body Condition Score property.

Name RelBCToScoreRate
Category Farm
Sub-category Growth
Location

Ruminant.Parameters.General

The growth scalar for calculating growth rate for normalised animal weight. Parameter CN2 from Frier 2012.

Name SRWGrowthScalar_CN2
Category Farm
Sub-category General
Location

Ruminant.Parameters, Ruminant.Parameters.General

The slow growth scalar for calculating growth rate for normalised animal weight. Parameter CN3 from Frier 2012.

Name SlowGrowthFactor_CN3
Category Farm
Sub-category General
Location

Ruminant.Parameters, Ruminant.Parameters.General

These parameters are required by the user creating new breeds for simulations and will not be changed by the general user.

These parameters to define the breed name and aspects such as the size of individuals.

The rate (proportion of pregnancies) at which multiple births are conceived. You can add as many values as needed to this parameter as a comma separated list. These values will represent rate of twins, triplets, quadruplets, ... etc. For example if 20% of pregnancies carried twins and 4% carried triplets, you would supply "0.2,0.04" to this parameter.

This parameter should be left blank if no multiple births occur for the breed.

Name MultipleBirthRate
Category Breed
Sub-category Breeding
Location

Ruminant.Parameters.General

These parameters to define the weight of individuals.

The factor to convert from empty body weight to live weight.

Name EBW2LW_CG18
Category Breed
Sub-category General
Location

Ruminant.Parameters, Ruminant.Parameters.General

See also