WinEPIC is a production-risk management model designed to help agricultural practitioners optimize crop management and maximize production and profit, to identify limitations to crop yield, to assist growers with replant decisions, and to identify best management practices that minimize impact of agriculture on soil erosion and water quality. It is a windows-based application of EPIC (Environmental/Policy Integrated Climate model) originally developed by USDA-ARS that simulates the interaction of natural resources (soil, water, climate) and crop management practices to estimate impacts on harvested crop yield, soil properties, soil erosion, profitability, and nutrient/pesticide fate.
WinEPIC is distributed on CD-ROM or may be downloaded online. It operates under Windows® 98, 2000, and XP with 128 MB RAM and requires 250 to 500 MB of space on the hard drive for installation and operation. Information for basic model operation is organized in databases by agricultural region. The databases contain basic information for model operation, but the user can fully customize to simulate his/her conditions and needs. Databases can be constructed for most agricultural regions in the U.S.A.
