Harvest logistics in agricultural systems with multiple, independent producers and no on-farm storage

The best way to organize the logistics of harvesting agricultural crops requires considering not only the fact that agricultural commodities in general are highly perishable, but also the fact that the organizational structure of the agricultural system in question can vary from crop to crop and from region to region within a single crop. This paper develops a model for planning the movement of the crop from farm to processing plant for crops satisfying two conditions: (1) there are multiple, independent producers (farmers), and (2) no significant on-farm storage exists. We will also briefly describe three different but economically significant agricultural systems in the United States: sugarcane in Louisiana, sugar beets in the northern areas of the United States eg. South Datoka, Minnesota, Colorado, and vegetable harvesting for human consumption, and will argue that these systems fit the two conditions of our model. We will also briefly explain why several other significant agricultural systems do not fit these two conditions and hence require alternative modeling techniques. Finally, we demonstrate that the model developed in this paper is computationally tractable by introducing new datasets based upon the sugarcane industry in Louisiana. This choice was driven, not only by the fact that the datasets can be constructed entirely using publically available information on the sugarcane infrastructure in Louisiana, ∗†Currently: School of Business, Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas, USA 66801 †∗Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]