Survey of New Zealand farmer intentions and opinions, September-November, 1981

This is the fourth major survey of New Zealand Farmer Intentions and Opinions undertaken by the author. The others relate to 1977, 1978 and 1979. All were aimed at providing agricultural policy makers and those in the agribusiness sector in New Zealand with better data from which they could formulate policies and plans. The surveys have continued in response to demands from various quarters although at no time has any claim been made that the results are completely conclusive. Obviously factors such as the unscheduled occurrence of droughts and the non-response from a section of the sample have an effect on the validity of the final results. The survey not only asked farmers for information on their development plans, but enquired about financial matters raised in the 1978 survey, and also a special survey in which the author was involved in during 1980. The questions were included in the 1981 survey in the hope that some important data on farmer indebtedness could be gathered to fill in gaps in our information on the capital and debt structure of New Zealand farms