Maximum Profit Dairy Rations That Include Wheat

Abstract

This article reports some results of a phase of work at Washington State University which was designed to estimate conditions under which wheat would be fed to livestock in the Pacific Northwest, given the prices and nutritive characteristics of commonly available feedstuffs. Solution of the linear programming model developed for this study maximizes returns net of feed costs by selecting both the dairy cow and her ration from the alternatives in the model. Solutions were obtained by parametrically varying wheat price. Wheat was allowed to be no more than half the grain part of the ration. With wheat price at $1.05–$1.28 per bushel, 750 pounds of it would be fed, and with wheat price at $1.29–$1.30 per bushel, 660 pounds would be fed per year. Wheat displaces barley priced at $1.01 per bushel in this solution. If, also, the level of barley use is restricted to half the grain fed, wheat replaces oats priced at $.76 per bushel. With wheat price at $1.49–$1.53 per bushel, 120 pounds of wheat would be fed, and with wheat price at $1.05–$1.48 per bushel, 750 pounds would be fed per year. In this solution, corn, milo, and wheat millfeed also were very sensitive to price competition with oats and with wheat priced between $1.50 and $1.55 per bushel.