The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: lord flynn on October 06, 2015, 10:44:46 am
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Hi everyone
Rosemary kindly agreed to let me do a little MR on here. If you have the time I would appreciate people doing this survey for a business idea I have. It's 10 questions, mostly multiple choice. Any feedback on the survey itself (or ideas for questions!) would be much appreciated. Most of the routine testing of samples refers to parasitology which I will make more clear in the next edit.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LQ2KWF7 (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LQ2KWF7)
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I tried to do the survey but hit a couple of problems
Q2 how often do you send samples direct to a lab? - I never send direct to a lab so would have to use option 1 which is 0-5 times a year. I think this would be misleading.
There should be an option for never.
Q8, I am not sure what the numbers are that I am selecting
Q10 When choosing a lab etc.... I have never chosen a lab and it doesn't give that option
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Done
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As Bionic says for q. 1 and 2 you really need to have a seperate option for never use.
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good points thanks, am in the process of editing now but it's not very fast :)
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Done :)
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Thanks everyone who's taken the survey so far, some useful information coming in. This is very much in the planning stages and I need to work out what's feasible.
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done but seeing as I have only 1 within 100 miles its a bit of a mute point unless I can send in samples myself etc
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fiestyredhead might be worth us having a word at some point but am very much in the planning right now :)
thanks all. If anyone who answered the survey with respect to goats and wouldn't mind PMing to help me learn more about them, I would really appreciate it!
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I started the survey but aborted.
As a longstanding commercial farm with hundreds of sheep and 30+ breeding cattle, and a very good and communicative vet, we would be unlikely to use FECs unless we had a problem that wasn't succumbing to medication on vet's advice.
We also get lab reports on lambs sent deadweight, which is a valuable resource to us, provided by the buyer/slaughterer. We've had early indication of summer fluke and of unusually high lungworm burden this way. (Neither of which condition would have showed up on a routine FEC, by the way.)
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thanks for the feedback SiN. The bulk of the business would be via vets, I will be carrying out testing for local vet practices and parasitology is only part of that. I am aware of the limitations of FWEC in some species and applications but it will be part of what I do.
The survey was to see if there was any need/scope for a direct service in addition to that, I am not looking to start a solely postal FEC company and I had expected most samples in that regard to be from horses.
I will add that I am not just someone untrained who's wanting to have a go with a microscope ( in case anyone was wondering!) , I have 15 years postdoctoral experience in parasitology and several in bacteriology and an awful lot of clinical sample testing under my belt. I am taking the RQP training right now as well. I am not however, a livestock keeper and its invaluable to get feedback from those who are. I have been in discussions with local practices as well who are very keen to increase testing turnaround times by having a local lab and to save them from doing some of the work themselves :)