A review of the practice and achievements from 50 years of applying OR to agricultural systems in Britain

Abstract

This paper will survey how things have changed over nearly 50 years of operational research (OR) applied to agriculture. The first ‘OR group’ was set up at the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering by Dan Boyce in 1969 and is now at Cranfield University. It will examine how, and what, factors have influenced the type of work and the methods used. What applications have stood the test of time and what are just distant memories in paper publications? It will show that agricultural OR has moved on from its early beginnings in agriculture in applying OR techniques with simple analyses, to using and creating complex computer models. While it might be described as alive, it clearly needs to identify itself and its specific contribution to analysing decisions, to set it apart from the ‘anyone can simulate and optimize using a computer’. The skill of holistic systems modelling of combinations of processes at the decision-maker level is as important as the ability to use techniques.

Keywords:

• practice of OR
• history of OR
• agriculture
• review

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric Audsley

About the Authors

Eric Audsley is a Principal Research Fellow at Cranfield University. Before that, since leaving Hull with an operational research degree, Eric worked for 34 years at Silsoe Research Institute, formerly the Agricultural Research Council's National Institute of Agricultural Engineering, until its closure in 2005. He has developed the application of mathematical and operational research techniques to the analysis of decisions concerning a very wide range of agricultural systems. Currently major areas are linear programming modelling of farms to predict future agricultural land use and model-based environmental LCA.

Daniel L. Sandars

Daniel Sandars is a Research Fellow at Cranfield University. He received a BSc (Hons) in Agriculture at Seale-Hayne (1990) followed by a masters degree in Applied Environmental Science at Wye College (1994) and a further masters degree in Operational Research at the University of Hertfordshire (2004). For the last 10 years he has been modelling the financial and environmental aspects of agricultural decisions. Before this he managed a dairy unit in Kent. He is a board member of the EURO-working group on Operational Research in Agriculture and Forestry Management (EWG-ORAFM).