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Abstract
Production of cotton and peanut enterprises in rotation are typical of South Georgia. With limited resources like land and labor, efficient allocation of those resources is required. Throughout the growing season, the crops require producers to make decisions of how to allocate the resources allocated for various activities required to produce the crop. Particularly, efficient allocation of resources at harvest, are necessary, as harvest timeliness is believed to be a continual problem in the rotation of these two crops. Little research exist in Georgia in the area of harvest timeliness, however agriculturalist continue to believe revenues, being lost due to harvest timeliness, are significant based on present production strategies. Through economical analysis and linear programming optimization, the harvest timeliness issue is addressed in this research. After constructing a typical South Georgia farm and a linear programming optimization model, the characteristics of the typical farm are incorporated into the linear programming model and is optimized. The function to be optimized is net returns rather than profit because the research does not take into account fixed costs. After the initial model is optimized, it is compared to the present production strategies to determine if producers are allocating their resources properly, based on assumptions made in this research. Scenarios based on the original model are conducted to determine the sensitivity of the constraints imposed. Conclusions dictate producers may need to adjust their production strategies throughout the growing season- particularly at harvest.