The Development of New Farming Systems

New farming systems are important, not because they bring more profit to farmers in general, but because it is always in the interests of the consumer to reduce the resource cost of producing food. Consideration of the development of the poultry industry over the past 30 years leads to the conclusion that it has succeeded in capturing new markets because of close cooperation between veterinarians, geneticists, nutritionists, engineers and entrepreneurs in the industry. Consideration of the needs of the dairy industry today leads to the conclusion that new farming systems will be developed from the work of molecular biologists, physiologists, biochemists, electronic engineers, model builders and farmers who will need a strong core of animal scientists to keep them on the right road. State funded extension workers are needed to transmit existing knowledge to farmers where the industry is fragmented and consists of large numbers of independent producers with limited technical knowledge. For industries which have coalesced into a small number of much larger production units, direct contact between managers and agricultural scientists is a more effective system for ensuring the two-way flow of knowledge.