This stud}' develops a sequence of yearly plans which provide optimum 5-year farm programs for a 160-acre farm under three alternative conservation situations. The 160-acre farm is located on the Ida-Monona soil association of western Iowa. In each of the 5-year plans, family living or household consumption is considered to be an "exogenous" activity because an "exact" capital allowance for this activity must be met each year. Family living, therefore, competes with farm production in the use of available operating capital. In each optimum plan, capital generated from crop and livestock production in any one year is used for farm production and household consumption for the following year. Dynamic linear programming is used to obtain the optimum farm plans.

Two dynamic linear programming models ( the expansion model and the rotation model) were developed. Each model allows the programming of t years of activities and restrictions. The models, therefore, should extend the magnitude of farm problems which can be analyzed by dynamic programming approaches.