WP3 : Simulations of innovations

Objectives

1. Adapt bio-economic models to cover a typology reflecting the diversity of cattle systems in Europe and to quantify their sustainability.
2. Apply these models to assess the performance of beef systems, both for existing conditions (from WP2) and for future scenarios, based on innovations implemented at farm and value chain scale (from WP4).

Approach

WP3 adapts existing models to assess performance based, inter alia, on sustainability indicators co-adopted in a multi-actors process (WP2) of a diversity of beef systems present in partner countries identified in WP2 typology. This approach delivers models parameterized/developed and calibrated to case study regions. The adapted models therefore allow for the depiction of cattle systems at sufficient detail to assess their performance under detailed scenarios with regard to both farm management and boundary conditions (markets, climate). These scenarios are defined by WP4. The analysis focuses on the competition between feed and food in land use, especially on management options which allow for the use of feedstocks with little or no value for human consumption.

Furthermore, with feedback from WP1, a common infrastructure has to be set-up to document models, and store/retrieve their results.