Smaller scale New Zealand dairy farmers: long term plans and key challenges

Farmer wellbeing has been defined as “a dynamic process that gives people a sense of how their lives are evolving” (Nimpagariste & Culver, 2010). In order to support and enhance the wellbeing of farmers in New Zealand, the farmers’ goals, future plans and challenges to their plans all need to be understood. A particular group of interest is smaller scale dairy farmers. The average size of dairy farms in developed agricultural nations is increasing and New Zealand is no different. A high proportion (62%) of NZ dairy herds are smaller scale, milking less than 400 cows at peak. Their wellbeing, now and in the future, is important to the New Zealand dairy industry as a whole. Consequently, the aim of this study is to develop an understanding of smaller-scale dairy farmers’ future goals, plans and challenges so that recommendations can be made to enhance and support their wellbeing in the future. Farms who peak milked less than 400 cows were surveyed via telephone. A total of 346 surveys were completed, in Taranaki (n=103), the Waikato (n=144) and Northland (n=99). The majority of respondents’ were owner-operators (75%), male (67%), born and bred in a rural area (79%), and between 40 and 60 years old (57%). Overall, the mean farm size was 97ha, with 240 cows producing 86,789kgMS with 0.83 of a full time employee. Respondents’ had high (67%) equity levels in their businesses and a third (35%) had non-farming investments. Farmers’ most likely future investments were related to their current farming business, that is reducing debt to very low levels and increasing production by more than 10%. Based on farmers future plans and challenges reported and discussed in this study, it is clear the smaller scale dairy farmers would like knowledge and assistance in five key areas; succession, regulation and compliance, staff, technology and cash-flow/profitability. This report concludes with suggestions for each of these areas, which has the potential to maintain or increase the wellbeing of smaller scale dairy farmers in New Zealand. [Executive summary]DairyNZ Ltd, Ministry for Primary Industry (NZ

Psychometric testing for assessing farmer's managerial ability (and modelling the origins of ability)

The key resource in efficient production is the management input used to coordinate the land, labour and capital. Yet, our understanding of this resource is still somewhat limited, especially the factors involved in improving the managerial ability of farmers. This paper summarises three tests developed to help assess managers, and uses the data collected through random surveys of all types of farmers to explain the origins of managerial ability. Survey data on the competencies farmers believe are important in successful management is reviewed, and finally a computer based teaching package to develop the important competencies is outlined. The tests developed cover managerial style, the locus of control, and aptitude

Farmers record keeping and planning practices : a postal survey

With the advent of the personal computer (micro computer) there is a need to develop software suitable for use by farmers. To gauge this requirement a postal survey of 1,500 farmers was conducted in early 1982 eliciting information on recording and planning practices as well as farmers' attitude to micro computers. The data collected suggest significant numbers of farmers do, in fact, keep detailed records particularly in the financial area, and make written plans in the form of documents such as a forecast budget. The responses also indicated a positive view of micro computers as an aid to management is held by many farmers. However, there is most unlikely to be a perfect correlation between recorded intentions and what eventually takes place

Computer use and attitudes for a sample of Canterbury, New Zealand dairy farmers

With the objective of collecting data for assessing research hypotheses about information management, a mail survey was carried out on Canterbury dairy farmers between July and August of 2000. From a total of 537 questionnaires sent, 300 were received, resulting in 290 usable responses. This report describes the average farm, farm sizes, the manager's dairy farming experience and age, tenancy, education, management teams, non-family people giving a reasonable input into farm decision making, farm office equipment used, computer use, software utilisation, information sources, internet use, farmer goals, and farmer opinions about information management. While almost three quarters of the farmers own a computer, 61% are using computerised systems to manage farm information. Financial management was the most common use of computers with 54.48% of the farmers using them in this way, followed by the livestock area with 35.17%, while only 16.9% of the farmers were using software to support their feed management. Farmers using computerised systems were younger, more educated, and more profit oriented than non-users. This group managed bigger farms, they have been farming less time both in Canterbury and in total, and they also used farm advisers more extensively in their decision making, and they spent more time doing office work

Symptoms and causes of poverty in a rural Vietnamese commune: Does ethnicity matter?

This study uses data from a sample survey of 200 households drawn from a mountainous commune in Vietnam’s North Central Coast region to measure and explain relative poverty. Principal components analysis is used to construct a multidimensional index of poverty outcomes from variables measuring household income and the value of domestic assets. This index of poverty is then regressed on likely causes of poverty including different forms of resource endowment and social exclusion defined by gender and ethnicity. The ordinary least squares estimates indicate that poverty is indeed influenced by ethnicity, partly through its interaction with social capital. However, poverty is most strongly affected by differences in human and social capital. Differences in the amount of livestock and high quality farmland owned also matter. Thai households are poorer than their Kinh counterparts even when endowed with the same levels of human, social, physical and natural capital considered in the study. This empirical result provides a rationale for further research on the causal relationship between ethnicity and poverty outcomes

Teachers developing assessment for learning: impact on student achievement

While it is generally acknowledged that increased use of formative assessment (or assessment for learning) leads to higher quality learning, it is often claimed that the pressure in schools to improve the results achieved by students in externally-set tests and examinations precludes its use. This paper reports on the achievement of secondary school students who worked in classrooms where teachers made time to develop formative assessment strategies. A total of 24 teachers (2 science and 2 mathematics teachers, in each of six schools in two LEAs) were supported over a six-month period in exploring and planning their approach to formative assessment, and then, beginning in September 1999, the teachers put these plans into action with selected classes. In order to compute effect sizes, a measure of prior attainment and at least one comparison group was established for each class (typically either an equivalent class taught in the previous year by the same teacher, or a parallel class taught by another teacher). The mean effect size was 0.32

Design Considerations for Computer Based Marketing and Information Systems

Recent years have seen a major revolution in the world of electronics. Computers have increased in size and capability and at the same time decreased in cost. Equally as important, communication systems have improved, though not yet to the same extent as computers, and will continue to do so. In contrast, the cost of providing farmers with information that is constantly updated using traditional methods is increasing. Similarly, the increasing cost of transport and personnel costs means marketing costs using traditional auction and contract arrangements continue to increase. To counteract these cost problems the agricultural sector is expressing considerable interest in the potential for replacing traditional information and marketing systems with computer based operations. To satisfy this demand for information this paper contains a review of the alternative systems available. The different types of systems available are defined and their advantages and disadvantages listed. Probably more importantly, considerable attention is paid to design details and practical questions which, in the end, will determine whether the promise of cost economies are in fact achieved. Finally, an argument is presented that for the success of electronic systems it is essential to have national integration through a cooperative communication system in contrast to government domination on the one hand or complete independence of competing systems on the other

An analysis of the feasibility of using image processing to estimate the live weight of sheep

One of the difficulties in successfully managing the supply and use of animal feed in sheep farming is in knowing the live weight of the sheep in the various mobs a farmer may be using. Most farmers make intuitive estimates of whether their sheep are increasing, maintaining or losing weight. A few farmers will weigh samples from the mobs, but this is an expensive and tedious operation, and consequently not carried out very often. If an inexpensive and simple method could be devised for quickly obtaining the average live weight of a mob of sheep this would markedly aid their successful management. This discussion paper contains outlines of the various methods that might be used as well as the problems with each method. There are also discussions covering the efforts made, as explained in the literature, for use in estimating the live weight of other species. This provides a means of generating ideas. The discussion paper concludes with recommendations on what appear to be the most promising approaches that might be further investigated. If such a system could be devised there is no doubt many farmers around the world would utilise it to assist in the management of their feed supplies, and consequently improve the efficient production of meat and wool

Farmer survey to study needs of small-herders

The business plans and personal requirements of small-herd dairy farmers are to be put under the spotlight as part of a survey being organised by Lincoln University Lecturer in Agricultural Management and Agribusiness, Dr Victoria Westbrooke, and Research Fellow, Dr Peter Nuthall

Exploring Entrepreneurial Skills and Competencies in Farm Tourism

Diversification to farm tourism is increasingly seen as a viable development strategy to promote a more diverse and sustainable rural economy and to counter declining farm incomes. However, our understanding of the dynamics of the modern farm tourism business and the entrepreneurial and competitive skills farmers require in making the transition from agriculture to a diversified - and service based - enterprise remains limited. Hence, the aim of this paper is to explore the range of skills and competencies that farmers in the North West of England identify as important when adopting a diversification strategy to farm tourism. With the findings indicating that that whilst a range of managerial skills are valued by farmers, they lack many of the additional business and entrepreneurial competencies required for success. Moreover, this paper acknowledges the need to generate consensus on the requisite skill-set that farm tourism operators require, along with a need for a currently fragmented rural tourism literature to acknowledge the significance of rural entrepreneurship and the characteristics of successful farmers and farm tourism ventures