Dairy Farmers receive information from the whole range of the sector relating to the dairying industry, whether they actively seek information or not. The survey carried out attempted to identify British farmers’ perception of the information sources of greatest value to them. This survey was limited to a sample of dairy farmers in England and Wales.

A postal survey was conducted with questionnaires being sent to 306 dairy farmers selected from the Public Register of the Milk Marketing Board of England and Wales. The sample size was 1.0% of registered dairy farmers from each of the eleven MMB regions. The questionnaire was in six parts. The first contained three questions on the farm itself (i.e. the MMB region, breed of cow, herd size). The remaining parts concerned five categories of potential information sources. These were: (1) hard copy (i.e. printed) publications from official or semi-official bodies, firms which provided agrochemicals, feedstuffs, machinery etc and their sales agencies, and the farming press; (2) broadcasting services on the radio and TV; (3) databases services from database producers or viewdata/teletext; (4) individual contacts which were precoded as MAFF/ADAS advisers, the MMB/Genus consultants, private consultants, other farmers, agrochemicals/fertilsers suppliers, feedstuffs suppliers, pharmaceutical suppliers, machinery suppliers and veterinary surgeons; and (5) other institutions which identified such remaining sources as educational institutes, research institutes, information centres, public libraries, and farming organisations.