LINGRA: Grass growth and yield simulation model

Abstract

Grass growth models are valuable tool for grassland management for a decision support application. The grassland growth model LINGRA, which was developed to predict growth and development of perennial rye grass across Europe is presented and some of the main equations are described in this work. Key process simulated in the model are light utilisation, leaf formatin and elongation, tillering and carbon partitioning. Integration time step is one day. LINGRA provides algorithms for the simulatin of grass growth under irrigated and non-irrigated conditins. Model is relatively simple, but it contains the most imprtant features of grass growth. Validation of the model from independent historical European data showed that model predictions  are sufficiently accurate to make it a useful aid for on-farm decision-making processes.