ABSTRACT
The Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender (APEX) model was developed for use in whole farm/small watershed management. The model was constructed to evaluate various land management strategies considering sustainability, erosion (wind, sheet, and channel), economics, water supply and quality, soil quality, plant competition, weather, and pests. Management capabilities include irrigation, drainage, furrow diking, buffer strips, terraces, waterways, fertilization, manure management, lagoons, reservoirs, crop rotation and selection, pesticide application, grazing, and tillage. Besides these farm management functions, APEX can be used in evaluating the effects of global climate/CO2 changes; designing environmentally safe, economic landfill sites; designing biomass production systems for energy; and other spin-off applications. The model operates on a daily time step (some processes are simulated with hourly or less time steps) and is capable of simulating hundreds of years if necessary. Farms may be subdivided into fields, soil types, landscape positions, or any other desirable configuration.
