Components of a Crop Plan and inputs to a growth simulation
There are several essential inputs to a stand growth simulation:
- Crop Plan identifier a unique identifier for the Crop Plan
- Options These settings include regional, merchantability and other specifications
- Stand establishment methods
- Stand and Tree Age
- Site index
- Create a stand interactively
- Read a stand (tree list) from the stands worksheet
- Simulate a stand Establish event, Simulate Trees (Stand age >= 15 years) Tab
- Simulate a regenerated stand Establish event, Simulate Trees (Stand age < 15 years) Tab
- Multi-Strata Stands Stands consisting of multiple sub-stands
- Other events that define the growth, report and treatment sequence for stand development
- Crop plan events
These components and inputs are all arranged formally in the Crop Plan and are interpreted by the simulation engine when executing the growth simulation.
Of particular interest to you when providing information on real or hypothetical stands are the items relating to stand and tree age, site, and the establishment of real or simulated stands. Poor or unrealistic starting conditions are often the main cause of poor projection results.
Constructing Crop Plans interactively
Crop Plans are created in the Crop Plans worksheet. Examples are available showing construction of crop plans using the MGM Toolbar.
Constructing Crop Plans from an external Excel workbook
For advanced users familiar with Excel Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), crop plans may also be constructed externally as described in VBA User Interface.