16 September 2009

1 minute read

Europe

The survey by Farmers Weekly, in conjunction with the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers believes that dairy farmers are less positive about their business prospects than their beef and sheep producing counterparts, due to falling profits and higher levels of outstanding investment.

Of the 300-plus dairy and livestock farmers who took part, some 68 per cent described their attitudes to their businesses as either "fairly positive" or "very positive".

A variety of reasons were given as to why they felt this way, but the majority (79 per cent) said that they still enjoyed farming, while almost half (43 per cent) said they liked the challenge.

But there were significant differences in the attitudes of farmers according to the type of production they were involved in, reports Farmers Weekly.

For example, 65 per cent of beef farmers said they were either "fairly" or "very" positive about their businesses. But this fell to 55 per cent for dairy farmers, who have the highest level of investment in the next few years.

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