Dairy farmers quizzed on grass

An industry-wide survey launched this week hopes to pin down farmers’ attitudes to the recent phenomenon of indoor dairy farming – and see how these compare with those held by the public at large.

While the move to yearround housing has been the subject of some controversy and public concern over environmental and welfare implications, there has been no definitive study of the dairy industry’s attitudes to pasture grazing and indoor systems.

However the “Cows eat grass, don’t they?” initiative being conducted by the James Hutton Institute’s social, economic and geographical sciences in Scotland department, wants to garner the views of farmers to include in a study which will also take into account opinions from stakehold-

0 Increasing numbers of dairy farms keep animals indoors

er and the public about the future of the dairy sectors in the UK and Ireland.

The project, which will be carried out by researcher Orla Shortall, hopes to survey a number of dairy farmers to listen to their views on the future of their industry.

Aimed at commercial dairy farmers in the UK and Ireland, the survey will take around ten-15 minutes to complete, with questions covering production systems and opinions.

Shortall said the dairy industry was at a key stage as many moved away from one type of system based on seasonal grazing and housing to year-round housing.

“There’s a feeling that the industry and the public are out of step about the realities of dairy farming and this survey aims to collect rigorous data on farmers’ views on the future of their industry to help provide more clarity on this subject,” the firm said.