Grain & Graze - Social Influences

Social Influences - A National Project

Social Influences in Mixed Farming is one of our national projects. The project produces discussion papers and publications, based on extensive interviews with farmers and advisers, literature reviews, case studies and focus groups.

In a nutshell, the project is identifying the factors that influence mixed farmers' decisions, particularly decisions about changing their farming systems.

Decision making on mixed farms is a complex process. Many factors are taken into account simultaneously, with finance, family, environment and risk all part of the mix.

Interviews already conducted have confirmed that a common reaction to the increasing complexity of farming is to simplify farming systems, sometimes by reducing the number of enterprises. The livestock component has often been reduced or removed because of labour difficulties, high workloads at critical times, a lack of skills, stress and less recreation time.

Read more about the Social Influences in Mixed Farming Project.

Browse the latest findings from the Social Research Project:

Making Confident Decisions in Drought - Issues about decision making in mixed farming. have been accentuated by the severe drought many Grain & Graze regions have been and continue to be experiencing.

pdf Confident Decision Making in Drought Oct 2007.pdf (pdf - 50KB) This paper presents some findings and suggests approaches to decision making on mixed farms.

In the latest pdf Grain & Graze Discussion Papers Nov 06 (pdf - 128KB):

1/06 Australian Mixed Farming - A System Under Threat?
2/06 Decision Making on Mixed Farms - Managing Complexity
3/06 Advisors - Opportunities for Grain & Graze
4/06 Issues from Literature Review - Decision Making on Mixed Farms
5/06 Mixed Farming Decisions - Doing the Sums
6/06 Mixed Farming - Labour
7/06 Lessons for Extension

Project Coordinator

Nigel McGuckian
RMCG, PO Box 2140
Bendigo Mail Centre, VIC 3554
Phone: 03 5441 4821
Email: nigelm@rmcg.com.au