Linking Production Theory and Multiobjective Fractional Programming as a Support Tool for Animal Diet Formulation

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show how Multiobjective Fractional Programming can improve the process of diet formulation. The aim of least cost feed formulation is to provide a technically efficient feed, i.e., to obtain the best animal performance (growth, milk production) at the minimun cost. But with different combination of nutrient supplies, mainly energy and protein, we can get the same performance. So, several least cost diets with different levels of energy and protein can be computed to choose the minimun least-cost formulation. Our thesis is that we can compute with Multiobjective Fractional Programming the set of least-cost diets, making the process more efficient. We show an example with a coefficient matrix of a real industry and outline the benefits for improving the whole formulation process.