Review: Modeling production and environmental impacts of small ruminants - Incorporation of existing ruminant modeling techniques, and future directions for research and extension

Abstract

Mathematical models are a useful part of extension and researcher collaboration with producers and policymakers. Although many models of large ruminant production exist, with a wide variety of objectives and users, the range available to small ruminant producers is limited. This review summarizes the current state of models available to small ruminant research, identifies data gaps that could be filled to improve representation of current small ruminant production practices, and suggests a framework that could be used to develop a suite of models to improve small ruminant research at the research and consultant levels and research and teaching levels and to improve system-level assessment of environmental impacts.