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This paper presents a bi-objective model for optimizing pig deliveries to the abattoir accounting for total revenue and CO 2 emissions. Fattening farms house the most important stage in pig production, and operations on farms must be coordinated with the rest of the pig supply chain when batch management is generally applied. The novelty of the model lies in the change of attitude in producers towards a greener production, which is becoming one of the major concerns in our society. In this context, we enrich the classical approach focused on revenues with the addition of the CO 2 emissions from the pigs on the fattening farms. Emissions derived from feeding and transportation are considered since they are the most important sources of CO 2 . The model is tested using parameters representing a typical integrated Spanish fattening farm. Our findings reveal the impact and the relationship between revenues and emissions, highlight that the break-even is reached achieving 459 kg of CO 2 per pig, which corresponds to a reduction of 6.05%. On the other hand, the profit is slightly reduced by 4.48% in favor of the environment.

Processing plants are central for the operation of fruit supply chains. One of the main aspects to consider is fruit transportation to the processing plant. Hence, this work proposes a mixed integer linear programming model to support the fruit transport planning from the storage facilities to the processing plant. The aim of the model is to minimize the daily transportation costs and associated costs of different storage facilities from where fruits are supplied to the plant in order to meet the demand. The model considers plant processing capacity, fruit demand, number and type of trucks available and the inventory of fruit in each type of storage facilities. The model was applied to a real case study of a processing plant located in the O'Higgins Region (Chile), where reported savings only in transport costs reached about 23 percent.

This paper presents a multiperiod planning tool for multisite pig production systems based on Linear Programming (LP). The aim of the model is to help pig managers of multisite systems in making short-term decisions (mainly related to pig transfers between farms and batch management in fattening units) and mid-term or long-term decisions (according to company targets and expansion strategy). The model skeleton follows the structure of a three-site system that can be adapted to any multisite system present in the modern pig industry. There are three basic phases, namely, piglet production, rearing pigs, and fattening. Each phase involves a different set of farms; therefore, transportation between farms and delivering of pigs to the abattoir are under consideration. The model maximizes the total gross margin calculated from the income of sales to the abattoir and the production costs over the time horizon considered. Production cost depends on each type of farm involved in the process. Parameters like number of farms per phase and distance, farm capacity, reproduction management policies, feeding and veterinary expenses, and transportation costs are taken into account. The model also provides a schedule of transfers between farms in terms of animals to be transported and number of trucks involved. The use of the model is illustrated with a case study based on a real instance of a company located in Catalonia (Spain).

This paper presents the development and adoption of a discrete event simulation model of a pig meat-packing plant located in Navarre (Spain). The simulation model was developed to represent all the tasks and pig meat cuts production performed in the plant and implemented in ExtendSim™ 9.2. The development was incremental as the whole model was made of different sub-models focused in different products as for example ham, ribbon or sirloin. The main utility of the proposed model was the economic assessment of pig meat processing and cutting production. Pietrain breed presented more homogeneity and a better performance than Large White breed at equal price of the same products. In addition, even the ham is the most important cut, the loin and the bacon showed the best relative economic value with 52–53 % and 44–45 %, respectively, depending on the breed.