Oil Mallee Farming Optimization Problem
Oil Mallee Farming Optimization Problem
Farmer Joe would like to plant mallees (a type of eucalyptus) on his 90 ha of land (1 hectare = 1/100 ). However, he does not want to plant mallees on the fertile soils that are highly productive for wheat cropping (an area constraint). He knows that wheat profits are about $120/ha, while mallee will yield a profit of $90/ha. He also knows that mallees will cost him 2 days of work/ha, while wheat costs 3 days/ha. He is a profit-maximizing farmer who has a maximum of 180 working days available (labor constraint).
2
km
Use the sliders to explore how relaxing the two area constraints and the labor constraint affects the feasible area for a solution to Joe's problem.
Use the "profit" slider to explore how much profit Joe could possibly make, while staying within the feasible solution region.
Can you see at which basic solution corner his profit-maximizing solution exist? What is the limiting constraint?
This model demonstrates the LP problem from Management Decision Tools (UWA unit SCIE3367/8367) computer labs 2 and 3_2011.