SimBa project Final Workshop

 

The SimBa Final Workshop will present the results of the project, including a demonstration of the web application on 12th May 2023 in Belvaux.

The project SimBa (Simulating economic and environmental impacts of dairy cattle management using Agent-Based Models), funded by two National Research Funds, FNR (Luxembourg) with and F.R.S-FNRS (Belgium), aimed to simulate the evolution and the optimization of dairy farming systems. To this aim, the project developed an innovative simulator that coupled an Agent‑Based Model (ABM) with a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) calculator, integrating multi objective optimization at the level of each farm. This individual-based simulation model considered not only economic and sustainability constraints, but also the behavioral components of farmer agents. Thanks to the phenomics approach based on the analysis of phenotypes like cow’s bodyweight, dry matter intake, or milk production and composition, the approach followed in SimBa allowed an unprecedented level of precision (in a LCA framework) for the calculation of the environmental impacts from dairy herd managements.

Resulting from the close collaboration of four partners (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology – LIST; Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech of the University of Liège; Institut fir biologesch Landwirtschaft an Agrarkultur Luxemburg LIST – IBLA; and Lycée Technique Agricole) and with the support of CONVIS Luxembourg, the project simulated different farm management scenarios and assessed their related economic and environmental impacts.

As a result, the project developed an innovative decision support tool for a better management of the decision-making process in agriculture and farming, accompanied by a web-based interface that allows fast visualization of the results for several pre-defined scenarios.

Programme

13:30   Hélène Soyeurt, Anthony Tedde – Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech University of Liège (ULiège)

           Predictions of dairy related phenotypes using milk mid infrared spectral data

14:15    Stéphanie Zimmer – Institut Fir Biologësch Landwirtschaft an Agrarkultur Luxemburg

            Reducing livestock and increasing protein autarky: lessons learned and case study for Luxembourg

15:00   Alper Bayram – Luxembourg Institute of Science & Technology (LIST)

           SIMBA agent-based model description

15:45    Coffee break

16:00    Tomás Navarrete Gutiérrez – Luxembourg Institute of Science & Technology (LIST)

            The SIMBA web application

16:30     Antonino Marvuglia – Luxembourg Institute of Science & Technology (LIST)

             Uncertainty characterization of the results and additional research directions

Partners