Maximum Profit Livestock 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. The linear programming models developed for this study maximize returns net of feed costs by simultaneous selection of the animals to be fed and their rations. Solutions were obtained by parametrically varying wheat price. The breakeven prices for including wheat in the livestock rations ranged from $1.28 per bushel for lambs to $1.35 per bushel for fattening hogs, with those for yearling steers at $1.33 and sows at $1.30 per bushel. For substantial parts of the rations, wheat appears nearly perfectly substitutable with competitive feed grains. Changing the price of wheat from zero to its breakeven prices changes the marginal opportunity costs of the livestock fattening alternatives.