Application of continuous and discrete optimal control to feeding of farm animals

摘要

An important problem in farm management is to feed animals in an optimal manner to achieve maximum foodproduction subject to constraints. In this paper, we use optimal control to develop optimal feeding policies for sheep, swine, andshrimp. We derive optimal control policies by three different methods: 1) continuous optimal control, 2) hybrid continuousoptimal control with discretized feeding policy, and 3) discrete optimal control with discretized feeding policy. For sheep, theaim is to optimally feed pregnant sheep from gestation to birth of lamb to achieve a desired weight of lamb at the time of birth ofthe lamb. For swine and shrimp the aim is to achieve a desired weight at the time of sale. Data for animal growth from the Thaigovernment and Thai Agricultural Research Stations was used to develop the models. Numerical solutions from the three optimalcontrol methods were obtained and compared.