FarmDESIGN Release Notes

Date Version Description

Details
19-01-2018 4.21.0 Various extensions
• Decision variables with exact values (18 January 2018)
• C-factor calculations for RUSLE soil loss equation (18 January 2018)
• Qualitative scores for production activities added (18 January 2018)
• Number of persons per category added (18 January 2018)
• Costs per animal for management added (18 January 2018)
• Farm data written to files from Describe window (18 January 2018)

21-12-2017 4.20.1 Improvements to detailed flow metrics calculations

• Small bug fixes in the adjusted Explain window (20 December 2017)
• Adjusted flow metrics calculations for the ‘complex’ approach (22 December 2017)

18-12-2017 4.20.0 Nutrition calculations improve, technical changes input text

• Text translations of Describe and Explain window in text files (11 December 2017)
• Dietary Retention Factors (DRF) per food group and DRI in database (12 December 2017)
• Added form to Explain window to show details for selected tabs (14 December 2017)
• Error in Farm/Open list without selecting resolved (15 December 2017)
• Added “Details” window to Feed Balance tab of Explain window (16 December 2017)
• Added original values of DVRs and OBJs to output files of Explore (16 December 2017)
• Supply of food groups in diet added to Reporter output file (16 December 2017)
• Added feed self-supply rate to Feed Balance in Explain window (16 December 2017)
• Added food self-supply per food group and nutrient in Nutrition tab (17 December 2017)

08-11-2017 4.19.0 Adjustments in outputs explore, technical changes input text

• Calculate correlations between objectives and decision variables (26 October 2017)
• Avoid exception due to doubling of decision variables, remove DVR (27 October 2017)
• Text translations of Describe and Explain window in database (7 November 2017)
• Output of explore split into separate files (8 November 2017)

18-10-2017 4.18.7 Bug fixes

• Bug fix calculation of livestock density (12 February 2017)
• Maximized DMD to 0.95 (24 September 2017)
• Connection string of OLEDB driver adjusted after Microsoft update (18 October 2017)

31-10-2016 4.18.6 Efficiencies

• Bug fix manure amount applied to crops (17 October 2016)
• Print water balance to the Reporter file (18 October 2016)
• Added operating profit per ha; changed order margins in Profit tab (18 October 2016)
• Added nutrient system yield per 1000 L water in Nutrition tab (18 October 2016)
• Bug fixed in reading nutrition data DRI (31 October 2016)

01-10-2016 4.18.5 Nutrition yield per ha

• Nutrient yield calculation per ha added (16 September 2016)
• Added manual sections decision variables (7.4) and constraints (7.5) (16 September 2016)
• Correction in nutrient flows, digestate added to manure flow to soil (21 September 2016)
• Dropdown boxes product type (anim. prod.) and produced at site (manure) (29 Sept. 2016)
• Default values set for new empty farm components (29 September 2016)
• Correct copy of data after importing farm from XML file (30 September 2016)

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• GHG emissions for burning in the field added to GHG module (1 October 2016)

15-09-2016 4.18.4 Bug fixes in human nutrition calculations

• In Explore window, DE parameter MP represents number of solutions (17 July 2016)
• Nutrient yield calculation corrected for dry matter content (7 September 2016)
• Nutrient supply per cop/animal product for overview corrected (8 September 2016)

29-06-2016 4.18.3 GHG calculation: N2O emissions from applied manure added
• N2O emissions from applied manure added (29 June 2016)

26-06-2016 4.18.2 GHG calculation corrections and other bug fixes

• Correction EF fertilizers (24 June 2016)
• Show manure emissions in GHG tab of Explain window (24 June 2016)
• Nutrient yield calculation only for products with food group assigned (24 June 2016)
• Small fixes in the names and texts in Describe window (24 June 2016)

28-04-2016 4.18.1 Bug fixes

• Farm data-file version check during import corrected (21 March 2016)
• Return to family labour only for actual farm labour (21 March 2016)
• Newline after writing to the Reporter file added (4 April 2016)
• Description of data structure in manual updated (15 April 2016)
• Off farm labour of household members as candidate decision variable (28 April 2016)

04-03-2016 4.18.0 Adjustment of labour calculations, including leisure time

• Added Inspect window to analyse the distribution of exploration results (1 March 2016)
• Added hired labour and leisure time to labour calculations (4 March 2016)
• Corrected: nutrition requirements of persons were shifted 1 entity (4 March 2016)
• FarmDESIGNConsole.exe application added (5 March 2016)

04-03-2016 4.17.2 Bug-fixes in pesticide and human nutrition calculation

• Improved pesticides calculations and their display in Explain window (22 February 2016)

16-02-2016 4.17.1 Export of exploration data improved

• Results from of optimization written during exploration (12 February 2016)
• Nutritional functional diversity data available for Landscape IMAGES (6 February 2016)
• Technical improvement for writing of farm data (used by Reporter) (5 February 2016)

31-01-2016 4.17.0 Added reporter for comparing multiple farms

• New reporter window to select farms to extract data and write to file (23 January 2016)
• New window to estimate crop N fixation (23 January 2016)
• Re-arranged some of the menu items, added information button (23 January 2016)
• Total household income is a candidate objective/ constraint (30 January 2016)
• Pesticide active ingredients calculation in Explain window (31 January 2016)
• Correction of calculation manure costs (31 January 2016)

16-01-2016 4.16.0 Grouping and sorting of farm components

• Farm components grouped into folders and sorted by name (15 January 2016)
• Added calculation of Margalef and Shannon indices for crop areas (16 January 2016)
• Display of axes and labels in graph of Explore window improved (16 January 2016)
• Explanation added to EOM window concerning definition of residue (16 January 2016)
• Added IDs to the output Excel file of the Explore window (16 January 2016)
• Added nutrient use efficiencies to Nutrient tab of the Explain window (16 January 2016)

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• Open manual, release notes and output folder from Describe window (16 January 2016)
• Technical changes removing PositionID and correcting error messages (16 January 2016)

08-01-2016 4.15.2 Gender and age group specific labour overview added
• Gender and age group labour added to Labour tab of the Explain window (8 January 2016)

06-01-2016 4.15.1 Bug fixes labour and income

• Bug fixes in calculations labour returns, pension and remittances (6 January 2016)

05-01-2016 4.15.0 EOM window

• Variables and outcomes tabs in Evaluate window with 4 decimals (4 January 2016)
• Show same axes in Explore window after edit of axis data (4 January 2016)
• Effective organic matter calculation added in Describe window (4 January 2016)

22-12-2015 4.14.0 Household added, budget improved, layout changed

• Added copying of notes to new farms for animal products (16 December 2015)
• Nutritional yields can be selected as objectives and constraints (18 December 2015)
• Household added, members linked (19 December 2015)
• Household budget calculations adjusted (20 December 2015)
• Labour balance changed: positive values indicate surplus of labour (20 December 2015)
• Icons changed, screen colours can be adjusted by user (20 December 2015)

04-09-2015 4.13.1 Reading DRI files added

• Files with Daily Required Intake of nutrients can be read and are used to calculate total
nutrient requirements at the household level.

14-06-2015 4.11.1 Nutrient cycles adjustments

• Internal flow of nutrients for animal products to animals added
• Corrected carbon cycle flow to soil
• Extra checks added in animal whereabouts

31-05-2015 4.11.0 Added animal whereabouts, updated labour profile

• Added animal whereabouts in a new window, the site where animals are can be specified
per 2-week period.
• Updated labour profile window, labour input can be indicated per 2-week period, for all
types of required and available labour in the describe window.
• Manure management adjusted, specifying the fractions of use of the different manure types,
included a new destination for manure “to firewood” for cooking and heating after drying.

04-05-2015 4.10 Data entry from Excel and text files through clipboard
• Added functionality to insert and update data directly from Excel through Copy-Paste.
• Updated the nutrients for human nutrition, added copper and vitamins (B12, D and E).

21-04-2015 4.9.0 New properties for tables, bug fixes

• Property ‘LivestockUnits’ added to ANM (Animal) table.
• Calculation of total livestock units and livestock density added and displayed in ‘Feed
balance’ tab of the Explain window.
• Property ‘Expenditures’ add to HMR (Household member) table.
• Calculation of ‘Other expenditures’ added and displayed in the ‘Budget’ tab of the Explain
window.
• Correction in the writing of the string with module numbers.
• Network calculations restructured into object-oriented approach.

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• Old notes and photographs are removed before new ones with the same ID are entered.

08-04-2015 4.8.5 Flow metrics calculations added

• Added calculations to calculate flow metrics as defined by Ulanowicz and Finn.
• New tab in the Explain window to show resulting indicator values.

11-03-2015 4.8.4 Bug fixes

• Display of the nutrient flows (inputs, outputs and balance) in the correct place and order.
• Names of the farms in the farm-select window now ordered for name.
• Extra check to avoid a crash when a food group is not recognized.
• Display of the correct name for “crop burning losses” in the Explain window.
• About-box adjusted to show the correct information.

10-03-2015 4.8.3 Adjusted dietary diversity calculation

• The calculation of dietary diversity was changed to incorporate MDD-W indicator. The food
groups were adjusted.
• Display of the feed balance slightly adjusted displaying one more digit to deal with small
numbers in case of using metabolizable energy (ME) calculations for small farms.

12-02-2015 4.8.2 Bug fix

• Small bug-fix: correct number of parameters shown in the ‘Requirements’ tab of the animal
product input window.

30-01-2015 4.8.1 Nutritional Functional Diversity added

• Added the indicator calculations for Nutritional Functional Diversity (NFD). Including a new
window under Settings/Calculations to make a mapping between the crop and animal
products defined for the farm and those included in the NFD cluster dendrogram.
• Removed Group1 and Group2 from the Householdmember entity, no longer shown in the
Describe window.
• Small improvements in display of parameters for N2O emission from manures.

15-01-2015 4.8.0 Extension to GHG emission calculations

• Added GHG emissions originating from N2O emissions of nitrogen in applied green
manures, fixed nitrogen and deposition.
• Added a form (window) to calculate the methane emissions from crops as affected by
cultivation and hydrological conditions before and during the growing season, in particular
for rice.

05-01-2015 4.7.2 Added window edit/compare data

• A new window was added to edit and compare data of farm components, can be used in the
Describe window and in the Repository window. Thus, changes in Repository data is now
possible.

07-12-2014 4.7.0 Increased number of food groups

• The number of food groups to calculation nutritional diversity has been extended from nine
(primarily used to calculate WDDS) to sixteen. This allows calculation of additional diversity
scores for all 16 food groups (provisory named FDDS) and HDDS.

24-11-2014 4.6.0 Human nutrition and household budget added

• Human nutrition indicators added to calculations in the ‘Nutrition’ tab of the Explain
window.
• New tab ‘Budget’ added to the explain window for household economic calculations. To be

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 further elaborated.
• Various technical improvements made in the updating of tabs in the Explain window.

15-11-2014 4.5.1 Completed prototype of GHG module; household nutrient flows

• A module for calculating greenhouse gas emissions in the form of CH4 and N2O, and the
resulting CO2-equivalents was added.
• Enabled selection and ordering of modules for the display of outcomes in the Explain
window, can be configured per farm.
• Added the household as an entity in the nutrient flow diagrams in the Explain window, to
prepare for household level calculations of nutrition indicators, labour and income.
• Added casual labour to animal management, e.g. for herding activities.

31-10-2014 4.5.0 Completed prototype of bio-energy module added

• A module for calculating the production of bioenergy on farm from crop residues and
manures was added. Digestate remaining is calculated and added to the manures in the
organic matter and nutrient flows.

09-10-2014 4.4.1 Added drag-and-drop in tree view main window

• The items in the tree-view of the ‘Describe’ window can be dragged and dropped to other
positions in the tree.

11-06-2014 4.2.5 Improved nutrient cycle calculations

• Improved display of nutrient cycles, potential immobilisation no longer subtracted from soil
N losses.

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Older versions:

Version: date Description

2.0: 01-06-2010 Initial version for BFS30306

2.4: 21-01-2011 Upgrade, added:

- Various parameters from fixed to adjustable
- Eggs and wool can be added as animal products in the Describe window
- Bedding balance added in ‘Destination’ tab in the Explain window
- Water balance added in a new tab ‘Water’ in the Explain window
- Bug fixes:
o Calculation of protein requirement in generic feed evaluation
o Updating of the animal products and returns in the profit tab
3.0: 31-03-2011 Upgrade, added:
- Repository
- Check of consistency in feed evaluation system per farm
- Improved calculations of crop product dry matter digestibility
- Some changes in the graphical user interface
3.2: 06-04-2011 Upgrade, bug fixes:
- Solved erroneous calculation of total and own manure production
- Calculate the dry matter mass of imported manures (fertilizers)
- Show losses and h.c. of imported manures (fertilizers)
3.3: 23-01-2012 Upgrade, bug fixes:
- No error message when objective cannot be found
3.4: 10-04-2012 Upgrade, added:
- Crop manures and fertilizers, amounts applied per crop can be specified
3.5: 07-05-2012 Upgrade, added:
- Crop and herd labour requirements can be added as constraints/objectives
3.6: 05-06-2012 Upgrade, added:
- Added risk for crop margin as an economic indicator