Sensitivity of small-scale beef cattle farm's profit under conditions of natural turnover

We continue our long-term research focused on beef herd management optimization from the perspective of a small-scale farmer in the Czech Republic. We have built a linear programming model of beef herd development spanning a ten-year period under the constraints of limited farm capacity with the main variables being the heifer acquisition and selection of heifers for either rearing or fattening process. In this paper, we use the aforementioned approach to determine the sensitivity of farmer's profit to the subsidies, input costs and selling prices. This time, we specifically focus on the natural turnover of the herd, meaning that no acquisition of cattle is possible. The sensitivity analysis shows that from the three factors influencing the profit, it is the change in input costs that plays a crucial role in the farmer's profit.