Improving the design of knowledge transfer strategies by understanding farmer attitudes and behaviours

Abstract

Introduction There is a widespread view that new technology and the research-based knowledge from which it is derived are not being taken up at an appropriate rate by UK livestock farmers. At the supply end of the process, this view is manifest in questions over value for money invested in scientific research. At the demand end, it has raised questions over the efficiency of the mechanisms in place for linking farmers with new knowledge and technology (Garforth, et al., 2003). Recorded differences in financial performance of livestock farms suggest a “potential payback to improved knowledge transfer, not only to bring the bottom third up to average performance, but also to ensure that the top third performers continue to exploit scientific and technological advances” (ADAS, et al., 2002). Concern has prompted action. The government’s Action Plan for Farming (MAFF, 2000) committed one million pounds over 18 months “for knowledge transfer to improve the flow of outputs from research to the agricultural industry”. The Action Plan had short-term objectives of bringing relief to the sectors most severely affected by the economic crisis hitting the industry at the time and a longer-term objective of supporting adaptation and restructuring. Enhancing knowledge transfer was seen as contributing to both. Three Knowledge Transfer Initiatives (KTIs) were set up, including one for the livestock sectors (ADAS, et al., 2002), which ran from January 2001 to May 2002. The Livestock KTI consulted widely within the industry and distributed factsheets on 67 priority topics, which were well publicised through shows, meetings, intermediaries such as veterinary practices and the farming press. Despite these efforts, awareness of the KTI among livestock farmers was limited and very few accessed the factsheets (Iles, 2003). More recently, a Demonstration Farm pilot project (Defra, 2002) has been set up as part of a Learning, Skills and Knowledge programme within the English Rural Development Programme, which seeks to build on the perceived success of the Monitor Farm Programme in New Zealand (Riddell, 2001). Defra (The