Betekenis van een aantal cultuurtechnische factoren voor de ontwikkelingsmogelijkheden van veenkoloniale akkerbouwbedrijven : een toepassing van lineaire programmering

The author investigated the possibilities for arable farms in the old fen settlements of the north-eastern Netherlands after various improvements such as in the quality of the soil and the layout. By linear programming, calculations were made for farm models differing in soil quality, accessibility of farm buildings and land for heavy transport, field size, field distance and width of the fields, and in labour force and mechanization.

Farms with machines usual for the area gave insufficient scope, even under the most favourable circumstances. For reasonable incomes further mechanization was necessary. To attain maximum profit from this and from improvements as in layout, the area per man should be increased considerably.

A level of mechanization with an investment of f 75,000 in machinery gave good results, if the accessibility of farm buildings was improved, fields enlarged and an area per man was above 25 ha. However, the best results could only be attained with areas per man of about 40 ha. If so the farms could also provide higher wages and take higher costs for land than then. A still heavier mechanization without any contracting work demanded very large farms.

The accessibility of the farm building and the field sizes had an especially important effect on the evolution possibilities of the farms. In establishing improvement plans for this area, these factors should be taken more into account than any increase in the number of public roads.