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Author Topic: Lambing survey - inputs needed!  (Read 3082 times)

Chugbi

  • Joined Oct 2016
Lambing survey - inputs needed!
« on: December 29, 2016, 09:23:26 pm »
Hello again!

I'm undertaking a project on lambing management around the UK, focusing mainly on lambing mortality rates and I've put together a small survey of 18 questions relevant to what I need to know.
Its mainly focusing on larger farms and holdings (50+ sheep) but I have found everyone on here to be so helpful in the past that I would like any inputs/advice/responses from you to be included too  :idea:

I've tried to keep it farmer friendly by making it all multiple choise style but I welcome any suggestions or criticisms, please feel free to email me at cbe.mos@gmail.com

So if anyone would like to fill it in (or point it in the direction of any farming friends) I would greatly appreciate it!
 :hugsheep:

« Last Edit: December 29, 2016, 09:31:37 pm by Chugbi »

clydesdaleclopper

  • Joined Aug 2009
  • Aberdeenshire
Re: Lambing survey - inputs needed!
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2016, 09:46:01 pm »
the type of form you have created won't work on a Mac
Our holding has Anglo Nubian and British Toggenburg goats, Gotland sheep, Franconian Geese, Blue Swedish ducks, a whole load of mongrel hens and two semi-feral children.

regen

  • Joined Jan 2013
Re: Lambing survey - inputs needed!
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2016, 10:10:27 pm »
the type of form you have created won't work on a Mac
+1 Regen

Chugbi

  • Joined Oct 2016
Re: Lambing survey - inputs needed!
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2016, 10:42:33 pm »
the type of form you have created won't work on a Mac
Apple products are the bane of my life  >:(
Oh well, thanks for replying I'll see if I can construct something tomorrow!

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Lambing survey - inputs needed!
« Reply #4 on: December 30, 2016, 09:38:03 am »
Comments :

You're not interested in sheep keepers in the top half of England? ;). (You know the Midlands is thus called because it's in the middle, don't you?  I'm teasing you, but I do think you will want a North East England and a North West England option.)

Coming recently from a farm in the NW of England, which lambs through March, I wasn't sure how I'd answer q2a...
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Backinwellies

  • Global Moderator
  • Joined Sep 2012
  • Llandeilo Carmarthenshire
    • Nantygroes
    • Facebook
Re: Lambing survey - inputs needed!
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2016, 12:36:37 pm »
I lamb mid March ..  so not early or late ....  don't know how to answer this question
Linda

Don't wrestle with pigs, they will love it and you will just get all muddy.

Let go of who you are and become who you are meant to be.

http://nantygroes.blogspot.co.uk/
www.nantygroes.co.uk
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Backinwellies

  • Global Moderator
  • Joined Sep 2012
  • Llandeilo Carmarthenshire
    • Nantygroes
    • Facebook
Re: Lambing survey - inputs needed!
« Reply #6 on: December 30, 2016, 12:38:21 pm »
There are no instructions of what to do when you get to the last question ..
Linda

Don't wrestle with pigs, they will love it and you will just get all muddy.

Let go of who you are and become who you are meant to be.

http://nantygroes.blogspot.co.uk/
www.nantygroes.co.uk
Nantygroes  facebook page

Black Sheep

  • Joined Sep 2015
  • Briercliffe
    • Monk Hall Farm
Re: Lambing survey - inputs needed!
« Reply #7 on: December 30, 2016, 06:32:15 pm »
Will work on Macs if people have Office for Mac  :). However I would agree a universal format would be better. Are you aiming for people to complete the document electronically or to print and fill in by hand and scan/post back? I presume the former as there is no return address, in which case you could look at something like Survey Monkey - you could have 2x 10 question questionnaires and up to 100 responses to each for free.

Hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs, but from experience of surveys and data gathering to get good response rates people need to know a little bit about why it is being done and what will happen with their answers - is there anything in it for them or any risks for them? Will they get to see the final report or aggregated responses if they would like to?

The questions themselves need to be very clear and not leave room for interpretation, otherwise you will get lots of different interpretations which weakens your data. So, thoughts:

In general be clear which questions are "best single answer" and which are "tick all that apply". What is obvious to one person won't be to another.

1a. As mentioned there are more regions. But does everyone agree whether their county is in the midlands or the north, for example? You could have a free-text box for county name (or a drop-down list of all counties if doing online completion) that would remove this issue. You can allocate to regions in your analysis if desired.

1b. Is flock size all animals or only females or only females of breeding age? Does it include the lambs and if so what time of year are you measuring it?

The 500-1000 has a typo (is 5-1000 at the moment) and the ranges overlap, so e.g. 500-1000 / 1000-1500 should be 500-999 and 1000-1499. I presume you have chosen the bands as they make sense in the context you are analysing things and are broken down enough.

1c. Do all farmers agree on what group their breed fits in to? Is the group breed-specific or determined by location? For example would a Herdwick farmer in Cumbria tick the same box as a smallholder with Herdwicks on lower ground?

1d. The product could also be live animals e.g. to sell to other smallholders or to other farms lower down.

1f. How closed is closed? Completely, or are tups allowed in when needed?

2a. Nowhere to prompt people where to write the period. Perhaps split into two questions, first asking which month lambing begins in and the second for how many weeks they aim for it to run over?

2c. Options are too subjective - perhaps every time / every 2-5 / every 6-10 / more than every 10 / never?

2d. Percentages at scanning and lambing will be different - which one do you want to measure? Are you only counting live births?

2f. Is predation common enough to include as an option?

2h. If you want to draw any relationships between the answer here and other things like mortality you might need to know what proportions they are in.

3. Do you need to have sheep as an option? They won't have got this far unless they have them ;) What about poultry, goats?

Apologies if some of the above sounds nonsense as that will be due to me not understanding the subject fully, but I hope some of it is useful and helps you get really good data for your project. I'm presuming you've worked out your analysis plan already and the questions you are hoping to use this data to answer and have made sure that it will enable you to do that.

Chugbi

  • Joined Oct 2016
Re: Lambing survey - inputs needed!
« Reply #8 on: January 01, 2017, 02:38:48 pm »
Thanks everyone for comments  :)

I did start to use survey monkey however it kept crashing so soon gave up..I will try again though!
Typos will be changed, as for the midlands, I did have more options and a free text box however was told to change it by my tutor as 'farmers don't have time for typing' and he very insistent I remove it, same for the breeds of sheep and a few other things which is a massive pain as now I will add them back in and spent a while deleting stuff for nothing :(
I will definitely have a revised edition up sometime next week


regen

  • Joined Jan 2013
Re: Lambing survey - inputs needed!
« Reply #9 on: January 02, 2017, 02:48:38 pm »
" which is a massive pain as now I will add them back in and spent a while deleting stuff for nothing "

No Pain then no Gain!

Regen

 

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