Blood sucking ahdb

[White rabbit]

I'm sorry - there is absolutely no way in the world this is true. For one the Levy Payer Satisfaction Survey is conducted by an independent company, responses are confidential, only presented to AHDB in the form of aggregates etc.. Two, there isn't a question on it asking if they respondent wants the levy to continue, unless the questions have been changed this year, which they were always against doing as you couldn't track year on year unless it was the same questions. Three it is completely inconceivable that a single operative has spoken to 150 farmers in a week, and as I say the responses are confidential and anonymous, so they'd only know who they'd spoken too.

Either you, or you neighbour is telling a big old porkie pie here I'm afraid. Your post earlier in the week looked a bit dubious to me to say the least, but I had no way of knowing for certain if they were true or not - but this is a whopper!

I did not say it was one of the questions I said my neighbour asked him what response he was getting from levy payers, the company that is doing the survey is called QS from Yorkshire, since then a potato grower has called saying he has had a 9call and gave all the questions a score of 1 ,the chap on the phone said he would be sending him a veg box for taking part ,he said the survey involved 2,500 levy payers,I couldn’t understand why our veg sales had shot up so much.

 

[White rabbit]

I think you have to realise these surveys are totally irrelevant, you say it is whiter than white and yet when these people called me I asked this same question and was told much the same thing ,he said it was mainly rude to unrepeatable and yet when the results came out it said 95% were satisfied with the ahdb.This was not what we found in our ballot when 85% were not satisfied and would not care if it shut down, how come such a major difference or do you call it being economical with the truth.

 

[White rabbit]

I'm sorry - there is absolutely no way in the world this is true. For one the Levy Payer Satisfaction Survey is conducted by an independent company, responses are confidential, only presented to AHDB in the form of aggregates etc.. Two, there isn't a question on it asking if they respondent wants the levy to continue, unless the questions have been changed this year, which they were always against doing as you couldn't track year on year unless it was the same questions. Three it is completely inconceivable that a single operative has spoken to 150 farmers in a week, and as I say the responses are confidential and anonymous, so they'd only know who they'd spoken too.

Either you, or you neighbour is telling a big old porkie pie here I'm afraid. Your post earlier in the week looked a bit dubious to me to say the least, but I had no way of knowing for certain if they were true or not - but this is a whopper!

just one question which you being an ex staff chap might be able answer, this has been puzzling me for quite some time ,the YouTube video showing a group of ahdb staff building paper towers and then building paper planes to knock them over, which sector is going to benefit most from this type of experiment.

 

[Henarar]

just one question which you being an ex staff chap might be able answer, this has been puzzling me for quite some time ,the YouTube video showing a group of ahdb staff building paper towers and then building paper planes to knock them over, which sector is going to benefit most from this type of experiment.

Didn't terrorists have a go at that sort of thing a few years back ?

 

[Henarar]

I think you have to realise these surveys are totally irrelevant, you say it is whiter than white and yet when these people called me I asked this same question and was told much the same thing ,he said it was mainly rude to unrepeatable and yet when the results came out it said 95% were satisfied with the ahdb.This was not what we found in our ballot when 85% were not satisfied and would not care if it shut down, how come such a major difference or do you call it being economical with the truth.

Was there survey over the whole of the AHDB or just horti as your ballot was ?

 

[Tarw Coch]

I think you have to realise these surveys are totally irrelevant, you say it is whiter than white and yet when these people called me I asked this same question and was told much the same thing ,he said it was mainly rude to unrepeatable and yet when the results came out it said 95% were satisfied with the ahdb.This was not what we found in our ballot when 85% were not satisfied and would not care if it shut down, how come such a major difference or do you call it being economical with the truth.

Speaking of irrelevant ahdb surveys we went to a ahdb dairy farm walk probably about 10 years ago. Can’t remember what about only that it was as dull as dishwater and one of the speakers has a rather annoying wish for everyone to clap along to whatever she was trying to present, and was dubbed the happy clappy woman by my milker although in reality she was actually quite annoying.
Anyway as we were leaving the happy clappy woman was by the gate handing out stickers and asking everyone to place one on a board with columns denoting how good the day had been from very good on the left through to not so good on the right. Every time someone’s hand would venture towards the right she would intervene and persuade them to place their sticker against an improved rating of the day .................I’m sure that’s human nature, I can remember doing a survey at the dairy event a few years ago with the person asking the questions trying to influence any negative response.

It does make you wonder how valid any of their surveys are unless done by independent staff with no care in the result

 

[White rabbit]

Was there survey over the whole of the AHDB or just horti as your ballot was ?

That survey was for all sectors, the same as the one doing the rounds at the moment, my neighbour was told the comments the chap was receiving was across all sectors.

 

[Highland Mule]

It does make you wonder how valid any of their surveys are unless done by independent staff with no care in the result

Absolutely. My perception of WR’s survey was that the questions were extremely loaded in favour of getting the responses he wanted. To be fair, he did pay an outside company to run it though.

As above, the AHDB telephone survey is conducted by an independent organisation. I have no experience so don’t know if the questions are loaded or not.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Absolutely. My perception of WR’s survey was that the questions were extremely loaded in favour of getting the responses he wanted. To be fair, he did pay an outside company to run it though.

As above, the AHDB telephone survey is conducted by an independent organisation. I have no experience so don’t know if the questions are loaded or not.

I am a little surprised that those doing the survey are letting on what other respondents views are even in general terms, I would have expected it to be part of their brief to ask the questions, take note of the answers and give no information regarding what other respondents had said away.

As for wether or not the questions are loaded, I would expect the questions to be set by others than the ahdb for the survey to be considered independant

 

[Highland Mule]

I am a little surprised that those doing the survey are letting on what other respondents views are even in general terms, I would have expected it to be part of their brief to ask the questions, take note of the answers and give no information regarding what other respondents had said away.

That’s pretty much what @ExAHDBstaff wrote before.

 

[White rabbit]

Speaking of irrelevant ahdb surveys we went to a ahdb dairy farm walk probably about 10 years ago. Can’t remember what about only that it was as dull as dishwater and one of the speakers has a rather annoying wish for everyone to clap along to whatever she was trying to present, and was dubbed the happy clappy woman by my milker although in reality she was actually quite annoying.
Anyway as we were leaving the happy clappy woman was by the gate handing out stickers and asking everyone to place one on a board with columns denoting how good the day had been from very good on the left through to not so good on the right. Every time someone’s hand would venture towards the right she would intervene and persuade them to place their sticker against an improved rating of the day .................I’m sure that’s human nature, I can remember doing a survey at the dairy event a few years ago with the person asking the questions trying to influence any negative response.

It does make you wonder how valid any of their surveys are unless done by independent staff with no care in the result

They will have something else to think about while they are sat at home twiddling their fingers ,the potato sector will be voicing their concerns after next week.

 

[White rabbit]

That’s pretty much what @ExAHDBstaff wrote before.

That’s human nature sometimes the mouth runs away with itself.

 

[Tarw Coch]

That’s human nature sometimes the mouth runs away with itself.

I take it that’s not meant as a compliment

 

[ExAHDBstaff]

I did not say it was one of the questions I said my neighbour asked him what response he was getting from levy payers, the company that is doing the survey is called QS from Yorkshire, since then a potato grower has called saying he has had a 9call and gave all the questions a score of 1 ,the chap on the phone said he would be sending him a veg box for taking part ,he said the survey involved 2,500 levy payers,I couldn’t understand why our veg sales had shot up so much.

yes but you did say the person doing the survey had told him that he’d had 150 people say they don’t think there should be a levy. We’re expected to believe that 150 had just volunteered that up to one person in a week? Madness!

 

[ExAHDBstaff]

I think you have to realise these surveys are totally irrelevant, you say it is whiter than white and yet when these people called me I asked this same question and was told much the same thing ,he said it was mainly rude to unrepeatable and yet when the results came out it said 95% were satisfied with the ahdb.This was not what we found in our ballot when 85% were not satisfied and would not care if it shut down, how come such a major difference or do you call it being economical with the truth.

who has ever said 95% are satisfied with AHDB? Not me, not AHDB. They do these surveys to try and find out what the feeling is in the industry so they can try and improve.

a lot of effort goes into making sure questions are not leading and that a representative sample of the industry is achieved. As a result they know very well that not everyone is on board with a statutory levy.

I can fully accept that you don’t see the value from the levy and I am well aware that you’re not the only one.

But there really is no need to start spreading lies about. There is a big group of people who do value the levy. Maybe it won’t be big enough to win the vote, who knows.

I doubt you’ll believe me, but I am very confident that the ballot itself will be run in a fair manner. That is the way it is there, everything is by the book - frustratingly so at times.

 

[Highland Mule]

That’s human nature sometimes the mouth runs away with itself.

That’s very honourable of you to say so.

I take it that’s not meant as a compliment

I took it as an admission.

 

[Henarar]

That’s very honourable of you to say so

I will presume (I know I shouldn't but feck it) from that you think the same, so its very honorable of you to admit it

 

[Highland Mule]

I will presume (I know I shouldn't but feck it) from that you think the same, so its very honorable of you to admit it

When I make mistakes, usually from typing without thinking things through, I try to correct them later and admit I was wrong. Is that what you meant?

 

[Henarar]

When I make mistakes, usually from typing without thinking things through, I try to correct them later and admit I was wrong. Is that what you meant?

When someone quite wrongly calls me a liar I don't easy forget this is what I mean
Nice the you admit that your mouth can run away with itself though,
I will mark that down as a step in the right direction in our on line relationship

 

[ajd132]

AHDB chief executive to step down

Jane King will leave her role no later than September 2021

www.fginsight.com