Can we use the feed storage module with crop yield results obtained outside of Rufas?

[bianatur]

Hello,
We plan to use RuFaS to simulate feed management and storage, specifically to evaluate differences between on-farm feed storage and purchased feed under different farm management and weather scenarios. But we were wondering if we could use crop yield prediction developed outside of Rufas (therefore, likely not using crop and soil modules). Is it possible?
Our team has expected crop yield data from a DSSAT model and is wondering whether we can use these results as inputs for the feed storage module in RuFaS. More specifically, we want to use RuFaS to simulate the feed available to the herd and determine any additional feed purchases needed to meet the herd’s feed requirements.
Would any DSSAT outputs be suitable for use in RuFaS? If so, which variables would you recommend using, and are there any additional transformations or inputs that would be needed? DSSAT provides several relevant outputs, and we were wondering which would be most appropriate for this purpose. We were thinking of harvested forage weight (FHWAH), total aboveground biomass at maturity (CWAM), and yield (HWAM). We also have many other outputs, such as leaf area index (LAIX) and growing season duration (NDCH) (and many more).

We appreciate your thoughts, ideas and guidance,

Thank you!

[KFosterReed]

Hi @bianatur! We don't currently have the capability to accept user inputs to the Feed Module. There is an open PR #3183 to add the functionality to initialize the Feed Module and Feed storage functions with user inputs and to allow a simulation that will run the feed module alone but this will not yet allow a Feed + Animal Module simulation which it sounds like is what you would need for your specific use case. (That will be the next step though!).

You can see in the proposed changes in that PR that these are the inputs that will be needed to initialize the Feed Storage Module. Here is an example from a corn silage storage:

"storage_name": "corn_silage_storage_1", "dry_matter_mass": 200000.0, "dry_matter_percentage": 35.0, "dry_matter_digestibility": 40.0, "crude_protein_percent": 7.707, "non_protein_nitrogen": 4.55, "starch": 31.0, "adf": 24.0, "ndf": 40.931, "lignin": 3.054, "sugar": 1.5, "ash": 3.843

They are essentially the total mass and composition of the feed at the start of the simulation.

However, I will say that even if we did have this functionality and the ability to run a Feed + Animal Module scenario, my concern for your use case to take DSSAT predicted crop yeild results as inputs for the Farmgrown feeds in RuFaS is that it would only be for the first year of the simulation and the RuFaS Animal Module needs 3-4 years to stabilize. Because of this, my suggestion would be to use RuFaS to run an Animal Module only scenario with the diets you are interested in and then compare the total feed use with the DSSAT predicted crop yields under different scenarios.

Thanks for sharing your interesting use case! We are working towards adding more options for using the modules in isolation and different combinations but we are not quite ready for your application.

[bianatur]

I really appreciate your reply and suggestion! Thank you very much!!!