Evolution of the GRAZPLAN decision support toolsandadoptionbythegrazingindustryin temperate Australia J.R.Donnelly*,M.Freer,L.Salmon,A.D.Moore, R.J.Simpson,H.Dove,T.P.Bolger CSIRO Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia Accepted 18 March 2002 Abstract CSIRO Plant Industry has developed the GRAZPLAN family of decision support tools (DS tools) for consultants and farmers to improve the profitability and environmental sus- tainability of grazing enterprises. These tools are based on pasture and animal production models that have general application for simulating the biophysical processes of grazing sys- temsintemperatesouthernAustralia.TheDStoolsaredesignedtobeeasytouseand,apart from daily weather information, require minimal input of data. Where relevant, the models runcontinuouslyoverarangeofspecifiedyears,withoutfurtherinterventionbytheuser.The output generated can be linked to cost and price indices to enable estimation of production riskinfinancialaswellasinbiologicalterms. Adoption of GrazFeed, a tool to guide livestock nutrition, is widespread in the southern states where it is a keystone for the very successful PROGRAZE extension program spon- soredbyNSWAgricultureandMeatandLivestockAustralia.GrazFeed’ssuccessislinkedto the release of national feeding standards for ruminants, to the tactical nature of decisions aboutlivestocknutritionandtoaformalcommitmentbyCSIRO,thedevelopers,withNSW Agriculture, a major user. Adoption of another tool, GrassGro, which is used to analyse grazing enterprises for profit and sustainability, is slower. In this case the decision support is concerned with strategic planning where outcomes are probability-based and where the pas- turemodelinGrassGroisnotbasedonanagreednationalstandard.Confidenceintheuseof GrassGro increases where users are already familiar with GrazFeed, which contains an iden- ticalanimalmodel.AkeycomponentofthecommercialreleaseofGrassGroistheprovision ofanintensivetrainingcourse. 0308-521X/02/$ - see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0308-521X(02)00024-0 Agricultural Systems 74 (2002) 115–139 www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy * Corresponding author. Tel.: +61-2-6246-5106; fax: +61-2-6246-5399. E-mail address: john.r.donnelly@csiro.au (J.R. Donnelly).