Ráðunautafundur - 20.02.1996, Page 11

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numbers was introduced and since then the subsidies granted to advisers involved in farm
accounting and home economics have been withdrawn. Therefore, the present subsidy makes
up only about 13% of the budget of the local advisory service - and only 5% of the budget of
the Danish Agricultural Advisory Centre. In other words: User-payment is increasing
drasticaliy in the Danish advisory service.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOCAL AND NATIONAL LEVEL
In principle, there is a clear division of labour: The local advisory service supplies the farmers
with advisory services whereas the Agricultural Advisory Centre supports the local advisory
centres and forms the link to the research institutes in Denmark and abroad. Finally, the
Agricultural Advisory Centre is responsible for the tasks which are most rationally solved at
central level, e.g. computer programs (milk recording, feed planning, fertilizer planning,
budget and economy control). This means that we develop and own all central computer
programs used in Danish farming and most PC programs are developed and sold by the
Danish Agricultural Advisory Centre.
ADVISORY SERVICES DESIGNED FOR THE WHOLE FARM
Formerly, the Danish agricultural advisory services focused on single production enterprises,
e.g. cattle, pigs or crops. From the farmer’s viewpoint this was not an ideal situation. Being
the farm manager the farmer is responsible for the entire farm. If for instance an advice on
cattle feeding involves changes in roughage production, the farmer may be subjected to the
socalled concertina effect and the total economic impact for the farm might then be hard to
estimate.
To solve this problem - i.e. to create genuine production-oriented advice - the Danish
farmers’ organizations decided in the late 1980s that the advisory service should start develop-
ing a farm management program, BEDRIFTSL0SNINGEN. This program has the following 4
very principal characteristics:
- It is a PC based program package, using a modem via the telephone line to the central
databases.
- The very same programs are used by both farmers having their own PCs and the
advisers using portable PCs or stationary PCs at the local advisory centres.
- Everybody buying part of the program package also subscribes to updated versions,
thus ensuring that all PCs always use the same version, i.e. the latest.
- Sales and servicing are taking place via the local advisory centres so that the farmers
involved are always having a hotline service.