Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between land, labour and machinery on large arable farms with a view to modelling these relationships. These computer models were used to examine the effects of changing the levels and performance of these resources. The study also aimed to describe the levels of labour and machinery use on such farms. A later study by the same Principal Investigator uses a subset of part of these data - 'Large-scale Commercial Farming in South East England, 1941, 1978, 1981 and 1998-1999', held at the UK Data Archive under SN:4154.

Main Topics:

Variables Size of farm and enterprises; details of farm labour force (workers, wages, overtime, manual work by farmer, etc.); inventory of farm machinery; rates of work for farming operations; schedule and timing of normal sequence of operations carried out on each major crop.

One-stage stratified or systematic random sample

according to the distribution of large farms in the four South Eastern Counties (South East England); a simple random sample was used for East Anglia.

Face-to-face interview