The Impact of Grazing Management System on Producer Wealth in Alberta

• Author / Creator

  Wheeler, Kyle D

• This project sought to determine the effect of grazing management decisions on operation wealth; specifically, to determine both the wealth maximizing system for producers and to determine the impact on producers who adopt more intensive management systems. Adoption of four grazing management treatments, corresponding to one, eight, 50, and 115 paddocks, were modelled for representative cow-calf operations in three locations, the Boreal Transition (Lac Ste. Anne County), Aspen Parkland (Ponoka County) and Mixed Grassland/Prairie (Newell County) of Alberta, Canada. In all locations and for all treatments, a cow calf exclusive operation with a 700 head initial herd and a mixed cow calf-cropping operation with a 150 head initial herd were modeled.
  The study used expected wealth maximization to compare systems. Net Present Value (NPV) was used as a proxy for wealth. NPV was calculated over a 20-year horizon, using values generated by Monte Carlo simulation. Both production risk (i.e., pasture productivity) and market risk (i.e., beef prices and purchased feed prices) were modeled in the simulation.
  Results for the representative operations suggest that using eight paddocks is the wealth maximizing system across most of Alberta, and that the more intensive systems perform worse than the single paddock system in most cases, with higher associated risk. Even with higher than assumed benefits to more intensive grazing, the eight paddock system still often out-perform more intensive grazing systems. As there are potential environmental benefits associated with more intensive grazing, and these systems are costly and risky for producers to adopt, policy intervention will likely be necessary to incentivize the provision of these benefits, given the cost of adoption.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Economics
  • Grazing Management
  • Rotational Grazing
  • AMP
  • Adaptive Multi-Paddock
  • Alberta

• Graduation date

  Spring 2022

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-rfrx-9c35

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.