Reference no: EM132284069

Gulf Seafood raises crawdads and shrimp which is then distributed throughout the southeast and enjoyed by us. They have 275 acres to devote to the farming of either crustacean. 1 acre devoted to farming shrimp will produce 7,500 lbs of shrimp or 1 acre devoted to crawfish will produce 1,000 lbs of crawfish. If crawfish are grown then rice will also be planted to get more profit out of the land and also to provide food for the crawfish. Market trends suggest that no more than 60% of the land should be used to raise shrimp. Wholesale prices for 1 lb of shrimp is $1.35 and crawfish is $3.02. 1 acre of rice will also provide $650.00 for the rice harvested. The primary source of water to flood the fields comes from rain water but additional water must also be pumped. The water rights secured allow for 9,750 pumping hours. 1 acre of land used for crawdads requires 20 pumping hours and 1 acre of land used for shrimp requires 40 pumping hours. The main reason for this difference is that crawdads can burrow into the ground. There are 4 FTE (1 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) is 2080 hours of labor) that run the farm. An acre of crawdads requires about 19 hours of labor and an acre of shrimp requires 35 hours. With the information provided help Gulf Seafood determine the optimal strategy.