The Use of Computer for the Analysis of Input Demand in Farm Management: a Multicriteria Approach to the Diet Problem

The aim of this work is to analyse the feeding pigs problem using an operations research model with several conflicting criteria, economic and nutritional. The theoretical approach consists in adapting to producer decisions the modern consumer demand theory, the “characteristics approach” of Lancaster, which is essentially a multicriteria decision process. In this context the multicriteria decision methods, using a common PC program (Excel), became an operationally simple tool to solve feed formulation problems. The demand of nutrients (protein, fats, crude fibre, etc) to produce an agri-food product of high quality represents a case of study of this research.