A farmer has a 100-acre farm on which to plant watermelons and cantaloupes. Every acre with watermelons requires 50 gallons of water per day and must be prepared for planting with 20 pounds of fertilizer. Every acre with cantaloupes requires 75 gallons of water per day and must be prepared for planting with 15 pounds of fertilizer. The farmer estimates that it will take 2 hours of labor to harvest each acre planted with watermelons and 2.5 hours to harvest each acre planted with cantaloupes. He believes that watermelons will sell for $3 each and cantaloupes will sell for $1 each. Every acre planted with watermelons is expected to yield 90 salable units. Every acre planted with cantaloupes is expected to yield 300 salable units. The farmer can pump about 6,000 gallons of water per day for irrigation proposes from a sallow well. He can buy as much fertilizer as he needs at a cost of $10 per 50-pound bag. Finally, the farmer can hire laborers to harvest the fields at a rate of $5 per hour. If the farmer sells all the units he produces, how many acres of each crop should the farmer plant in order to maximize profits?

To solve this, you will need to calculate per acre costs for fertilizer and labor and subtract that from the profit.

Put this problem on a sheet named "Farm." Solve this and call the first answer report "Original." Now the farmer believes due to heavy rains, his shallow well could produce 7,000 gallons of water daily. Make this change and solve. Name the answer report "7000 gallons." Now change the number of gallons of water available daily back to 6,000. The labor rate needs to change to $9.00 an hour. Make the change and solve again. Name the answer report, "9,00 labor." In a textbox on the sheet with your calculations, answer the following.

1. According to the original report, how many acres of each type of produce should be planted?

2. Would increasing the water available be profitable to the farmer? Why or why not? Does the product mix change? If so, how?

3. Did the increase in wage rate change the product mix (the number of acres of cantaloupes and watermelons) from the original problem? What impact did the wage increase have?