Simulation-aided development of the Hawaii swine research programme

A computer model is presented to estimate the quantitative impact of future research/extension activities in various aspects of swine production on the profit of an average swine producer in Hawaii. The model was designed and used to generate information for making decisions regarding funding of future research/extension projects in the swine production area. The computer model has two components. The first simulates the biological production behaviour of a typical pig enterprise of Hawaii. The General Purpose Simulation System (GPSS) language was used to model the stochastic nature of the production. For a given set of biological parameters, this component provides annual production levels, feed consumption and statistics for selecting the capacity of various building facilities. The second component computes annual revenues, costs and rate of return to capital investment over the analysis period by using discounted cash flow method. In addition to other cost and price data, it uses the output of the first component as input.