TRANSCRIPTS
You will hear a student, called Joel, talking to his tutor about his research into farmers’ attitudes towards new developments in agriculture.
Dr Owen: Dr Owen, come in Joel.
Dr Owen: Right, so how’s your research going?
Dr Owen: You’re looking at how farmers feel about new technology and agriculture, aren’t you?
Joel: Well, actually it’s more general than that.
Joel: I’m looking at their attitudes to a variety of new developments in agriculture.
Dr Owen: Okay, have you got a title for the project yet?
Joel: I was thinking of something simple, like farmers’ attitudes towards the adoption of new farming practices.
Dr Owen: Hmm, that’s possibly a bit too general.
Dr Owen: I think the title needs to be a bit more specific.
Dr Owen: What kind of farming will you be looking at?
Joel: Well, that’ll vary actually.
Joel: But I want to speak to each of the 10 farmers in my sample.
Joel: So I’ve chosen farms which are all in the same region.
Dr Owen: OK.
Dr Owen: Well, I’d specify where they are then.
Joel: Right, I’ll amend the title to do that.
Dr Owen: Okay.
Dr Owen: Is there any particular reason why you’ve decided to do face-to-face interviews?
Dr Owen: It’ll be quite time-consuming, won’t it?
Joel: Yes, and I did consider doing telephone interviews for that reason, especially as it’s unnecessary for me to actually see the places where they work.
Joel: It’s just that in my experience, a lot of farmers don’t like talking on the phone, so they’ll be more likely to talk freely if I see them in person.
Dr Owen: Yes, you’re probably right, good.
Dr Owen: Well then, the first thing I want to investigate is how the farmers actually find out about new developments in agriculture that they might want to adopt, what sources they use.
Dr Owen: Right, so how are you going to do this?
Joel: Well, I could make a checklist of sources of information for them to look at in advance, so they could tick off the ones they actually use.
Joel: Things like farming magazines, farm product advertisements, television and the internet and so on.
Dr Owen: It might be more useful to ask them rather than show them a list.
Dr Owen: A spontaneous response to one or two open questions might give you a more accurate picture.
Joel: Alright, I’ll do that then.
Dr Owen: Now talk me through some of the other issues you want to cover.
Joel: Well, there’s the way the government communicates with farmers.
Dr Owen: Right, well, one thing is farmers complain that the government sends out the same information to all of them, whether they’re poultry farmers or dairy farmers or arable farmers.
Dr Owen: So they get all this information, but half of it doesn’t actually apply to them.
Joel: Exactly.
Dr Owen: So, you could look at that.
Joel: Right.
Joel: Then I wanted to look at attitudes of British farmers to the cost of making any changes on their farms.
Joel: According to articles I’ve read, farmers in Britain aren’t in principle against investing money in new machinery and new practices,
Joel: but they’re actually just too busy to work out what the financial implications are.
Dr Owen: Yes, and a lot of them don’t seem to consider getting financial advice from their accountants about it either.
Joel: Alright.
Joel: There’s also been some research in Australia on sheep rearing practices.
Joel: I can give you the reference if you like.
Joel: Basically it appears that the majority of Australian sheep farmers are willing to risk adopting new practices on the basis of just a few pieces of research.
Joel: They don’t usually wait until the evidence in favour of the changes is overwhelming.
Joel: They’re quite happy to act before then so they can get ahead of the game.
Dr Owen: Okay, I’ll take a look at that.
Joel: Thanks.
Joel: We said we’d also look at some of the reading material I’ve been reviewing.
Dr Owen: Yes, I had another look at Contemporary Farming Manual, which is clearly bang up to date.
Dr Owen: It covers a lot of things a farmer might want to know, but…
Dr Owen: It’s so dull.
Joel: Absolutely.
Joel: I found it really hard going.
Joel: And I can’t imagine any farmer wading through it.
Joel: There aren’t even any decent pictures.
Dr Owen: Did you have time to look at Running a Small Farm?
Joel: Yes.
Joel: although I only read bits of it because despite being entertaining, it wasn’t very academic.
Dr Owen: I know.
Dr Owen: And a lot of the information is either misleading or simply wrong.
Dr Owen: I’m surprised it got published at all.
Dr Owen: I don’t imagine the farming press will rate it very highly.
Joel: Hmm.
Dr Owen: You recommend Agriculture and Economics.
Joel: I expected that it would be really difficult.
Joel: The title’s a bit off-putting.
Joel: But I thought it was brilliant.
Joel: So I’ve bought it.
Dr Owen: Yes, some people think it relies too heavily on farming practices in specific parts of the world, but the theories that underpin these are universal,
Dr Owen: and that’s why it’s a required textbook for anyone studying agriculture.
Joel: Right.
Dr Owen: What else did you come across?
Joel: I borrowed How to Survive in Farming from the library.
Joel: I thought it would be interesting background and I liked the informal style.
Joel: But it turned out to have been written years ago.
Dr Owen: Yes, and like everything else, farming fashions have changed, so it’s badly in need of a new addition.
Joel: Can I ask you a question about…
