A LINEAR DYNAMIC SYSTEM APPROACH FOR CATTLE HERD OPTIMAL SHAPING

The time evolution of a herd of cattle is modelled as a linear dynamic system with slow time variation in model parameters. From this model, the optimal policy for the herd shaping is established, allowing the minimal initial cost with cattle acquisition and the maximal farm reso urces utilization in the steady state. The same methodology can be emp loyed in several different production schemes, with different constrai nts and different objective functions. The optimization problem is for mulated as a convex programming one, being solved with efficient algor ithms, while keeping guaranteed convergence to the global optimum. Thi s methodology is simpler than the dynamic programming optimization met hod.