Optimising control of an agricultural weed in sheep-production pastures

Morteza Chalak and David Pannell

Agricultural Systems, 2012, vol. 109, issue C, 1-8

Abstract: Optimal integrated control strategies for the weed blackberry (Rubus anglocandicans) infesting sheep pastures in Australia are analysed for a range of different circumstances. A wide range of control strategies with moderate to high costs and efficacies are analysed, including chemicals, mowing, grazing goats and biological control. The study employs a stochastic dynamic simulation model and a stochastic dynamic programming model to find the optimal control strategies under different levels of infestation. Results show that the application of a biological control agent (Phragmidium violaceum) increases expected net present value (ENPV) by so little that it is not worth introducing. Results indicate that for higher initial infestation areas, the optimal control strategies include fewer control options, resulting in lower cost but also less effective control. This is because the control costs are proportional to the infestation area, so applying expensive control strategies in high infestation area has lower net benefits. When the labour cost of spraying chemicals increases and infestation area is high, it is optimal to replace chemicals with mowing. If the efficacy of chemicals increases it is optimal to use less effective and cheaper chemicals.

Keywords: Weed; Blackberry; Optimisation; Stochastic; Agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X12000261
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agisys:v:109:y:2012:i:c:p:1-8

DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2012.01.010

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Systems is currently edited by J.W. Hansen, P.K. Thornton and P.B.M. Berentsen

More articles in Agricultural Systems from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().