FARMERS’ SURVEY FOR MASTER’S DISSERTATION - Socio-economic evaluation of mixed farming system as an agroecological contribution to climate resilience

[Olayele Oluwaseto]

Hello, my name is Olayele Oluwaseto and I am a master’s student at Coventry University. I am looking for small scale livestock farmers in the UK to participate in a short online survey. Small scale in this context is low input livestock farmers that practise organic farming and do not sell to big retailers.

The aim of the survey is to assess the socio-economic challenges of small-scale livestock farmers in transitioning to mixed farming system.

Your response would really be valuable as this would benefit my research. The survey should take approximately 10 minutes. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at: [email protected]

Here is the link to the survey: https://coventry.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/farmers-survey

Thank you very much.

 

[Coximus]

I hate to break it to you, but the entire predication of your questions and much behind them is based on something that does not exist, and belays a total non-understanding of how the livestock market works.

before you even start to ask questions, you really need to understand the basics of the industry, how it is structured and how it functions as economic and social units.

Even the questions and farm types you specify in your questions are vague from a farming point of view, and very very child like in their over simplification of the topic.
I suggest you take some time out to visit marts, speak to local farmers and understand how the farming ecosystem and economic model works, then rephrase your questions.

Even referering to "big retailers" is an alarm bell, as the interliked system means If i sell 10 lambs at mart, its possible for some to end up in Spain, some in tesco, and some in a local pub - and I will never know.

 

[Olayele Oluwaseto]

Hi all, many thanks to those who have filled the survey. However, I am still looking for more participants and I would really appreciate anyone taking this survey. Thanks again.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Question #6 no mention of Sheep!

 

[Coximus]

You havent responded to my queries above, which ws a farmer i belive i have legitimate concern over. Masters work such as yours runs the real risk of influence over policy, and when based on fundamental misunderstanding of how uk agriculture is structured can lead to the problems we face all the time, with badly written and structured policy

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I also can't differentiate between anthropogenic climate change and natural weather variability, how am I to know "on the ground" if we are having a normal 100 year storm event or something related to climate change? Surely that is why scientists use super computers to analyse data? Asking me is a very good sociological question about perceptions and attitudes, but it has no reliability with regards to anything else, in my opinion.

 

[Olayele Oluwaseto]

You havent responded to my queries above, which ws a farmer i belive i have legitimate concern over. Masters work such as yours runs the real risk of influence over policy, and when based on fundamental misunderstanding of how uk agriculture is structured can lead to the problems we face all the time, with badly written and structured policy

Sorry I did not respond to your comments earlier. Thank you for your feedback and I do agree with your suggestions but unfortunately, the scope of my project is relatively small and time-constrained. Those activities suggested are not feasible with the resources available as well as with Covid-19 restrictions. However, I hope the project would be able to engage with farmers to understand their point of view concerning the bottlenecks they face in this context. Please, do bear with me. Hopefully, I can work with your suggestions in my future projects. Once again, thank you for your feedback.

 

[Olayele Oluwaseto]

Question #6 no mention of Sheep!

Thank you so much for pointing this out. It was an error of omission. I have now included it in the survey

 

[Olayele Oluwaseto]

I also can't differentiate between anthropogenic climate change and natural weather variability, how am I to know "on the ground" if we are having a normal 100 year storm event or something related to climate change? Surely that is why scientists use super computers to analyse data? Asking me is a very good sociological question about perceptions and attitudes, but it has no reliability with regards to anything else, in my opinion.

I agree with you. Like you rightly said, the question is asked mainly concerning socio-economic perceptions and attitudes.

 

[Highland Mule]

What a poor survey - reflects incredibly badly on the tutors too.

What kind of farm - mixed livestock
What kind of livestock (unable to select more than one)...

 

[yellowbelly]

Didn't understand half the words in the title so didn't look at the survey.

God preserve us peasant farmers from education.

 

[Olayele Oluwaseto]

What a poor survey - reflects incredibly badly on the tutors too.

What kind of farm - mixed livestock
What kind of livestock (unable to select more than one)...

Sorry about that. You may select the 'other' option and then list the ones that suit you. Thank you.

 

[Olayele Oluwaseto]

Didn't understand half the words in the title so didn't look at the survey.

God preserve us peasant farmers from education.

I am sorry the title came across to you in a difficult way. Simply put, the project is looking at how small-scale livestock farmers can move into a mixed farming system (combining livestock and arable farming). The survey is meant to hear directly from livestock farmers like you on what challenges you face in trying to make this move. Hope this helps and it would be great if you can take a look at the survey. Thank you so much.

 

[Highland Mule]

Sorry about that. You may select the 'other' option and then list the ones that suit you. Thank you.

I may, but I shouldn't have to. If this is for your Masters, then it suggests you are at degree level already - yet this is a kindergarten level error.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I am sorry the title came across to you in a difficult way. Simply put, the project is looking at how small-scale livestock farmers can move into a mixed farming system (combining livestock and arable farming). The survey is meant to hear directly from livestock farmers like you on what challenges you face in trying to make this move. Hope this helps and it would be great if you can take a look at the survey. Thank you so much.

One of the challenges I would face as a small scale livestock farmer (apart from the need to change machinery, find a combine or contractor and build a grain bin) is the fact that my ground is stony, needs draining, has 64"+ of rain a year, and is quite high up (650 to 1050' above sea level). Maybe the fact that the Wet West of Britain has stock/dairy farms in the uplands is because it grows good grass and is not suitable for crops. I would be biting your hand off if you were to offer me £400/acre to grow potatoes here, but the fact no one is, could be because 65% of the land in the UK is only suitable for growing grass!

 

[curlietailz]

I may be wrong but I would suggest that small scale livestock producers ....( define small scale) would find it very difficult “getting into” arable
As said before..... if your Farm was capable of being an arable ( or potato or carrot) Farm then you already would be

 

[Olayele Oluwaseto]

One of the challenges I would face as a small scale livestock farmer (apart from the need to change machinery, find a combine or contractor and build a grain bin) is the fact that my ground is stony, needs draining, has 64"+ of rain a year, and is quite high up (650 to 1050' above sea level). Maybe the fact that the Wet West of Britain has stock/dairy farms in the uplands is because it grows good grass and is not suitable for crops. I would be biting your hand off if you were to offer me £400/acre to grow potatoes here, but the fact no one is, could be because 65% of the land in the UK is only suitable for growing grass!

Thanks for the feedback. It was very insightful.

 

[Olayele Oluwaseto]

I may be wrong but I would suggest that small scale livestock producers ....( define small scale) would find it very difficult “getting into” arable
As said before..... if your Farm was capable of being an arable ( or potato or carrot) Farm then you already would be

Thanks for the feedback. Please do fill the survey if you have not yet done so. It would be very helpful. Thank you.

 

[Boysground]

One of the challenges I would face as a small scale livestock farmer (apart from the need to change machinery, find a combine or contractor and build a grain bin) is the fact that my ground is stony, needs draining, has 64"+ of rain a year, and is quite high up (650 to 1050' above sea level). Maybe the fact that the Wet West of Britain has stock/dairy farms in the uplands is because it grows good grass and is not suitable for crops. I would be biting your hand off if you were to offer me £400/acre to grow potatoes here, but the fact no one is, could be because 65% of the land in the UK is only suitable for growing grass!

I’m a dairy and arable farmer so not in the catchment for answering the survey. You have stated what is obvious to most farmers but time and time again we see with surveys on here that basic geography is forgotten. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) much of this country cannot grow crops or veg but can grow grass. Just as your wet stony ground cannot grow cereals profitably my 6 inches of dust over chalk cannot grow veg or sugar beet.

Keeping things simple and using a few generations experience seems to have been forgotten these days.

Bg

 

[delilah]

Cut the OP some slack. There's less than 1% of the population who understand farming, i'm just grateful whenever a student wants to look at the industry however poor their current knowledge. I'm sending him/her (sorry) some bumf to stimulate their interest .