Farm and Horticultural Management Group Research Report series
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Item Computer use and attitudes for a sample of Canterbury, New Zealand dairy farmers(Lincoln University. Farm and Horticultural Management Group., 2001-07) Alvarez, Jorge; Nuthall, Peter L.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.Item Computers and information management in Canterbury dairy farming(Lincoln University. Farm and Horticultural Management Group, 2001-07) Alvarez, Jorge; Nuthall, Peter L.For providing systems to support decision making it is important to understand how farmers collect and manage decision information. Using data from a mail survey a ""three-information-area"" and ""four-system-type"" model was tested to describe Canterbury dairy farmer's information management structure. Those using computerised systems in every area were the largest group, but representing only 12% of farmers. Farmers using computerised systems in different information areas show similar characteristics in contrast to non-users, such as having farmed less years, being younger, having larger herds and bigger farms, being more educated, spending more time doing office work, involving more both farm adviser and accountant time, and being more profit oriented. Those who own computers, but do not use computerised information systems, are not statistically different from those not owning computers. The use of computers for managing feed and pasture information seems to be more restricted than for finance and livestock. The relationships among farm management computer use and the farmer's characteristics were checked using single statistical tests, regression and cluster analyses. The research findings are relevant for those aiming to improve farmer information management and also for farm software developers.Item The relationships between computer use and Canterbury dairy farmers' goals, personality traits and learning styles(Lincoln University. Farm and Horticultural Management Group, 2001) Alvarez, J.; Nuthall, Peter L.To help explain dairy farmers' use of software in managing farm information, farmers' goals, personality traits and Kolb's learning styles were included as independent variables in a model. The relationships were tested against on-farm computerised information system (CIS) use and other related variables. Relationships were in fact identified, using both direct and indirect correlation, between farmer's psychological characteristics and their computer related behaviour. Furthermore, cluster analysis was used to find a complex relationship indicating computerised information system use seems to be related to abstract conceptualisation, two psychological profiles, introspection and extroversion, and a preference to follow management principles. On the other hand, a high scoring in ""concrete experience"" may be related to a delay in CIS adoption. These findings will help in assisting farmers, especially those who want to improve their information systems, decide on their personal computer aptitude.Item Canterbury dairy farmers' opinions about using computerised farm information systems(Lincoln University. Farm and Horticultural Management Group, 2001-07) Alvarez, Jorge; Nuthall, Peter L.Canterbury dairy farmers' opinions about computerised systems used for managing farm information were collected through 39 stratified, randomly selected interviews. Farmers who are using software note they can save time, the software supports their farm management work, and it also enables them to use management approaches requiring more detailed information. Farmers who are not using computerised systems, but are considering this possibility, explain they are facing other priorities relative to improving their information systems. They are aware of the computer and software advantages, and they have a positive feeling towards computing technology. Some of them, however, feel insecure about their ability to use computers. Farmers not considering computerised systems believe computer technology is useless for their particular situations. Some farmers think computerised systems are unable to solve their actual farm problems, others feel themselves too old to learn the new technology. The interviews have confirmed ""earlier"" findings from a former mail survey. Key factors associated with the adoption of computer technology are farmer age, directly and through its relationship with farmer education; farmer education itself; the size of the herd; and consultant use intensity and involvement in farm management decision making.Item An analysis of the feasibility of using image processing to estimate the live weight of sheep(Lincoln University. Farm and Horticultural Management Group., 2004-06) Burke, Jonathan A.; Nuthall, Peter L.; McKinnon, Alan E.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.