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Survey Says ... Results of the Survey: Use of Computer Technology for
Farm Management
The Farm Business Management Information
Network for British Columbia (FBMInet-BC) conducted a survey in Spring 2000
to assess the interest and usage of computer technology by BC farm managers.
This survey was conducted as part of a project funded by the Canada/BC Farm
Business Management Program and the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands. Surveys were mailed to over 600 producers located throughout the
province. The results presented in this factsheet are based on the answers
from the 22% or over 150 producers that returned their surveys.
Demographics of Survey Respondents
Overall, survey respondents
demographics covered a good range in terms of location, education,
age, gross farm sales, and type of operation allowing results to be
generalized to the entire province. See below for details.
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| Location |
|
| Highest
Formal Education |
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|
| Age Category |
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| Gross Farm
Sales |
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|
| Type
of Operation |
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Computer Usage, Ownership and Farm
Management
Overall, the survey results indicate
that BC producers are strong owners of computer technology with over
76 percent indicating they own a computer with a CDROM.
|
Ownership of Technology |
| Computer with
CDROM |
76.7% |
| Fax Machine |
66.9% |
|
Internet connection
|
63.9% |
| Scanner |
26.3% |
| Multimedia CDROM |
18.8% |
Survey results also indicate the
following regarding computer usage and ownership by BC producers
that currently own a computer:
- Eighty six percent regularly use
the computer for farm management related tasks.
- Fourty nine percent indicated
computers are extremely or very important to their farm
management tasks.
- Over thirty eight percent
indicated computers have had a great effect on their work.
- Fifty percent spend from 2 to 5
hours per week conducting farm management tasks on the computer.
- Top farm management tasks
completed with the computer are bookkeeping, email and
correspondence.
These result clearly indicate BC
producers view computer technology as a strong tool for conducting
farm business management tasks. Details are included in the tables
below.
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Ranking
of Importance of Computers for Farm Mgt. Tasks
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Extremely
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20.6%
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Very
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29.4%
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Somewhat
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33.3%
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Not Very
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10.8%
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Not
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5.9%
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In the last five years, how much has
your work been affected by the introduction of
computers?
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Greatly
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38.2%
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Somewhat
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41.2%
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Hardly
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9.8%
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Not at all
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9.8%
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Don’t know
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4.9%
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Percent of Respondents that Use
Computers for the following tasks
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Bookkeeping
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79.4%
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Email
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70.6%
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Correspondence
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69.6%
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Research and/or Information Gathering
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57.8%
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Income Tax/Financial
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55.9%
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Information Storage
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49.0%
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Marketing
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39.2%
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Inventory Management
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30.4%
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Crop Planning/Field Management
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22.5%
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Herd Management
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15.7%
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Other
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11.8%
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Numbers of
hours per
week farm managers spend on the computer specifically
for farm mgt. tasks. |
| <1 hours
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26.5%
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| 2 to 5 hours
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51.0%
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| 6 to 10 hours
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7.8%
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| >10 hours
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8.8%
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Internet Usage by British Columbia
Producers**
** Ranked
by those farm managers who currently own computers and have an
Internet connection.
Survey results indicate that of the
BC producers who have Internet connection:
- Almost fifty percent access the
Internet daily with the majority spending 1 to 5 hours per week
on the Internet.
- Over sixty percent spend over 10
percent of their time on the Internet accessing agricultural
information.
- Email is a major use for the
Internet while chat groups are not as well utilized.
- Experience on the Internet is high
with fourty eight percent indicating usage of the Internet for 1
to 3 years.
- Over ninety percent indicate their
access to the Internet is via telephone connection.
- Major uses of the Internet are for
information gathering and email, with access to commodity
prices, weather, and recreation/entertainment ranking next.
Overall these results indicate BC
producers are relatively strong users of the Internet. Details
included below.
| How often do you
access the Internet?
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Every day
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49.4%
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Several times a week
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35.3%
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A few times a month
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10.6%
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Not in the last month
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4.7%
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| How many hours per week, on average, do
you spend on the Internet?
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One hour per week
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23.5%
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2 to 5 hours per week
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57.6%
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6 to 10 hours per week
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9.4%
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More than 10 hours
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8.2%
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| What proportion of the total time that
you spend on the Internet is used to access agricultural
related information?
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Less than 10 percent
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40.0%
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10 to 29 percent
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30.6%
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30 to 49 percent
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11.8%
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50 to 70 percent
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7.1%
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Greater than 70 percent
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9.4%
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| How often do you access the
Internet for email?
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Every day
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50.6%
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Several times a week
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27.1%
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A few times a month
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17.6%
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Not in the last month
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0.0%
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Don’t know
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1.2%
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| Internet Usage |
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Do you use the Internet for email?
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95.3%
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Do you have your own web page?
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15.3%
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Do you use the Internet for chat lines or newsgroups?
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10.6%
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| What key activities do you use the
Internet for?
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Email
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92.9%
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General Information Gathering
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89.4%
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Commodity Prices
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35.3%
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Weather
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52.9%
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Recreation/Entertainment
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49.4%
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Specific farm management information
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35.3%
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Marketing
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34.1%
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Banking/E-commerce
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34.1%
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Regulations/Government programs or services
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30.6%
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Commodity Production/Technical Information
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28.2%
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Other
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4.7%
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Internet and Farm Business Management
Information**
** Ranked
by those farm managers who currently own computers and have an
Internet connection.
Survey results indicate that BC
producers are :
- Using the Internet to search for
information from a wide range of topics with agricultural
information being a top area of research.
- Getting results from the Internet
but are still concerned with issues of connection problems, lack
of time and inexperience.
- Attributing not being able to find
what they want on the Internet to sites having a lack of
quality, not enough ag-related content and their own difficulty
in searching.
- Using the area of FBMInet-BC
including Ag Internet Directory, Current Reports, as well as
Business, Financial and Human Resource planning information.
Details below.
| What information have you used the
Internet to search for over
the last month?
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| Agricultural related
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78.8%
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| Business or Economic news
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57.6%
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| Travel
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55.3%
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| Government Programs
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42.4%
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| Arts, Entertainment or Sports
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34.1%
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| Education or Training
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34.1%
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| Computers and the Internet
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29.4%
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| Local Community Services or Activities
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28.2%
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| Why are you not able to conduct specific
search activities on the
Internet now?
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Connection problems, too slow, technical
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40.0%
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Lack of time
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32.0%
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Inexperience
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32.0%
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Dial in time limitations
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24.0%
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Other:
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28.0%
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| When you are looking for some kind of
information about your commodity area or farm business
management, are you generally
able to find it?
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Yes
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57.6%
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No
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29.4%
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| What categories from the FBMInet-BC main
web page (http://fbminet.ca/bc) would you be likely to
access?
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Agricultural Internet Directories & Internet
related information
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69.4%
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Commodity & Production Information
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61.2%
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Market Reports, News & Weather
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61.2%
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Business planning information
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38.8%
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Financial worksheets & Bookkeeping information
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45.9%
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Human Resource/Farm Employer
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22.4%
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