In addition to data and record handling and the completion of complex and arduous mathematical calculations, the computer may serve a wide range of purposes for the agricultural industry; these include the provision of day-to-day management information, the mechanical enactment of management decisions, business forecasting, interpretation of real life and prediction of future response by use of simulation models, analysis of cost effectiveness of various tactics and stratagems, the transfer of information, scrutinization of existing knowledge and the formulation of experimental programmes. The computer is seen as a major linking medium between research, development and production practice; being both the preferred route for information flow and an ideal way of packaging dispersed pieces of knowledge into practical, usable, systems advice.

The concern of practical producers is not with discrete little problems but with systems. To help, the extension worker must bring forward systems solutions. Often research and development workers try to get across to producers potential benefits in small bits (3 times daily milking gives a yield lift of 15%; flat rate feeding gives better margins over concentrates; high density diets improve feed efficiency), whereas producer benefits come from the cost effectiveness of whole integrated systems.