MANG6046 Advise the Smith family on how many livestock they should buy and what acreage of the different crops they should plant to maximize: Optimization and Decision Modelling Assignment, UOS, UK

a) Advise the Smith family on how much livestock they should buy and what acreage of the different crops they should plant to maximize their net wealth at the end of the next year.

b) They are interested in how much they should be willing to pay for any farmland that may become available to rent over the coming winter.

c) They are concerned that the price of cows may not stay at £2,000, but may vary between £1,000 and £3,000. What are the strategies they need to adopt if the prices change in this range and what affect will it have on the net wealth?

d) It is felt that Phil Bowman, the patriarch of the family cannot go on working much longer. This would cut their available labour to 3,000 and 3,500 hours in the winter/spring and summer/autumn, respectively. What effect will this have on their plans, and should they seek to employ someone in his place? If so, what sort of hours and wage levels should they offer?

e) A bank is offering to lend them money at a special rate of 10% to purchase more livestock beyond the £21,000 they had set aside. Should they take advantage of this?

f) They could build an extension to the milking parlour at a cost of £3,000 for each extra pair of cows it can take. How large an extension, if any extension at all should be built?

g) The details on the above table for crops grown reflect the situation if there are no large-scale frosts that delay the spring sowing. If there are late frosts, the resultant data would be: