The Swiss agent-based model (SWISSland) claims to depict as realistically as possible the 50 000 family farms comprising the whole of Swiss agriculture in all their heterogeneity as regards farm and cost structures as well as farm decision-making behaviour and interactions, with the aim of improving the simulation and forecasting of structural change in agriculture. With the linking of different methods and recorded data, there is a marked increase in the quality of the assessment of policy consequences. Simulations are shown for policy measures which affect only farm entry by cutting socially motivated direct payments for young operators.