Optimizing the Calf Mix on Range Lands with Linear Programming

Abstract

When faced with the decision of placing calves on two or more ranges, is there an optimum pattern? This study has shown the answer to be yes. A linear programming analysis was used to incorporate differences in the growth rates of steers and heifer calves on two ranges with different costs to find the optimum allocation of calves. The proposed allocation would have resulted in over a 4% increase in profitability over that achieved by the actual random allocation.