Farm Planning with Linear Programming: Concept and Practice focuses on concepts and methods in farm planning. The book first discusses the principles of farm planning, including elements of farm planning problems, summary, and review questions. The text highlights farm planning models. The nature of models; commonly used farm planning models; multiple constraint problems and program planning; problems in applying models; and comments are considered. The book also focuses on the linear programming network; opportunity cost and the simplex method; and analysis of the linear programming solution. The text also explains tableaux construction for short-run planning. Crop and pasture rotations; feed budgeting; buy, sell, and hire activities; and livestock reconciliation are discussed. The book also describes pastoral property applications. Breed comparison; economics of off-farm grazing and spatial diversification; and optimal calving date and lactation length on dairy farms are discussed. The text is a good source of information for agricultural researchers, farmers, and students wanting to study farm management.

This book discusses the methods to determine optimal systems in farm business management. The methods are all about problem solving, as any decision situation implies choice and, therefore, requires a method for deciding which alternative maximizes the objectives. The book is not, however, about carrying out the optimal plans. Most of the chapters relate to quantitative methods and qualitative analysis. The book has a penultimate chapter discussing a number of analytical models that are commonly used in urban business but which are less important in primary production. The results of farming systems analyses can have a major impact on good decision-making in any primary producing community. Some of the methods might be used by farmers themselves, but more likely by farm advisors and consultants, and by farm management researchers interested in, firstly, providing farmers with guidance on optimal systems, and, secondly, providing governments with advice on the impact of farm policy measures.

The efficient functioning of the livestock sector, encompassing all facets of input supply, production, processing and marketing, is critical for food security and safety. This book draws on both extensive literature and experience in animal health economics and livestock issues in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. It provides comprehensive coverage of the history of livestock and animal health economics, theory and tools for the economics of animal health and production, a review of the application of economics to animal diseases and health problems, and worldwide examples of economic analysis and policy making.

Offers a treatment of modern applications of modelling and simulation in crop, livestock, forage/livestock systems, and field operations. The book discusses methodologies from linear programming and neutral networks, to expert or decision support systems, as well as featuring models, such as SOYGRO, CROPGRO and GOSSYM/COMAX. It includes coverage on evaporation and evapotranspiration, the theory of simulation based on biological processes, and deficit irrigation scheduling.

The first of an eight-volume series, The Literature of the Agricultural Sciences, this book analyzes the trends in the published literature of agricultural economics and rural sociology during the past fifty years. It uses citation analysis and other bibliometric techniques to identify the primary journals, report series, and monographs of current importance to the developed industrial countries as well as those in the Third World.

A comprehensive treatment of farm business and control, with many examples drawn from farming practice.