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Appendix 3: Discussion Guides Used in the Study and Effectiveness of Scottish Monitor Farms

Role and Effectiveness of Scottish Monitor Farms

Depth Interview Discussion Guide - Funders

Introduction

Good morning/ afternoon. My name is …..from ADAS. As you know, we have been commissioned by the Scottish Government to consider the effectiveness of the Monitor Farm concept in Scotland. We are talking to a range of stakeholders, including funders, Facilitators and of course farmers themselves. Many thanks for agreeing to take part in this interview.

• First of all, could you give me a little bit of background about your organisation and your role?
• How /why did you get involved with the Monitor Farm project? (Interviewer: need to establish reasons for funding programme)
• What level of funding do you provide? How is this managed?
• What do you think of the Monitor Farms programme overall?
• What do you think of the structure of the programme and individual elements? (such as meetings/talks by experts etc)
• What has worked well/not so well?
• How do you think things could have been done better?
• Do you believe the programme is achieving/ has achieved objectives? Any examples? (Interviewer - refer to some specific objectives if possible)
• Do you think the programme provides/has provided value for money?
• There are currently 12 Monitor Farms in Scotland. Do you think the process should be rolled out further? Why/why not?
• What sort of funding do you think may be needed in the future?
• What role do they see your company taking in the future?
• Do you think farmers themselves could contribute to the funding? How do you see this being managed in the future?
• Do you have any other comments on the Monitor Farms concept?

Role and Effectiveness of Scottish Monitor Farms

Depth Interview Discussion Guide - Monitor Farmers

Introduction

Good morning/ afternoon. My name is …..from ADAS. As you know, we have been commissioned by the Scottish Government to consider the effectiveness of the Monitor Farm concept in Scotland. We are talking to a range of stakeholders, including funders, Facilitators and of course farmers themselves. Many thanks for agreeing to take part in this interview.

Please be aware that as part of the evaluation, our research partner Richard Armitage from Buccleuch FBR will also be contacting you to run through more detailed financial information concerning your enterprise.

• First of all, how did you get involved with the MF project? What was the motivation for you and your business? What process was involved in your selection?
• What worked well/not so well in regard to the selection process?
• What are your views on the overall approach to the Monitor Farm programme? In general? (The 3 year process, data which needed to be supplied, group meetings, presence of facilitator)
• What did you think of the process in regard to your farm?
• What has worked well/not so well in regard to the overall programme? (Explore in particular how they feel about opening up their farm to regular meetings of their peers over a prolonged period of time)
• Facilitation is a key aspect of the programme, how did/has the relationship with the facilitator work out? How often have you met up with your facilitator in addition to the events when the group members are there? Did you know the facilitator beforehand?
• When you have met up outside the group events what has been the focus of those meetings? How have they gone? And how has this contributed to the delivery of the programme?
• How were objectives for your farm agreed? Interviewer: explore the role of facilitator/farmer/community group. Was the process good?
• Were objectives set for the management of the group programme at the farm? (How many meetings required, how farmers were communicated with)
• Are the farm objectives being monitored/measured? How? If not, why not? (Take specific objectives and explore the monitoring process) Interviewer - as well as general and practical points we need to explore farmers' views on sharing financial information, what level is needed/acceptable, how it is being done now and how might it be done either better or at all.
• Do you know whether objectives are being monitored in the wider community group? What is being monitored and how that is being achieved?
• To what extent have the objectives for your farm been achieved? Interviewer : look at specific objectives by farm e.g.- Cropping, Livestock etc and refer to this, if possible also explore how this fits into the overall farm context.
• What key changes have you made to your farm arising from the MF programme?
• What did you think of specific events using external experts such as vets, etc? (i.e Soil Improvement, Calving Patterns, Ewe Fitness - specific for each farm). What were the most interesting topic areas?
• Can you talk me through how these meetings were run? Explore level of practical work/talking/listening. Was this mix satisfactory? What in your opinion made some sessions stand out as being particularly good or effective?
• Overall, did you find the meetings useful? Why/why not? What benefits did you get from the meeting in terms of
• personal?
• business?
• community?
• Do you think relationships have changed within the community groups? How? How well did you know group members beforehand? How important is this to the success of the programme?
• you think the MF programme has any wider benefits for
• businesses?
• the environment?
• socially?
• How might the overall programme evolve for the future? How could it be improved?
• Do you think the programme should be rolled out more widely across Scotland? If so how do you think this is best funded? Is their a place for farmers to contribute to the costs?
• Do you see a role for the MF approach in developing improved approaches to environmental management on farms and for promoting the need for other forms of income or employment?
• Which activities do you participate in which could lead you to changing farming practices? (Please list the 3 most important activities)
• How do you rate the value of the MF approach compared to all of the other forms of information/advice that you receive regarding changing farm practices?
• Better/same/worse
• What if any are the key benefits of the MF approach versus others?
• What would be your advice to a new MF?
• Any other comments on the programme?

Thank and Close

Role and Effectiveness of Scottish Monitor Farms

Discussion Guide - Group Members

Introduction

Good morning/afternoon/evening. My name is …..from ADAS. As you know, we have been commissioned by the Scottish Government to consider the role and effectiveness of the Monitor Farm concept in Scotland. As part of this we have been talking to a range of stakeholders, including funders such as QMS, MDC, HGCA, Highland Council, Scottish Enterprise, Cairngorm National Park and the Scottish Organic Organisation, the Facilitators and of course the Monitor Farmers themselves. We would now like to explore the views of the wider community group. Many thanks for agreeing to take part in this discussion group.

• Explain issue of confidentiality.
• Get permission to tape proceedings.
• First of all, how did you get involved with the MF community group?
• What do you think about the overall approach to the Monitor Farm programme? (The 3 year process, data which needed to be supplied, group meetings, presence of facilitator)
• What did you think of the process in regard to your farm? (Prompt - need to get at whether the process has influenced what they do on their farm etc)
• What has worked well/not so well in regard to the overall programme?
• How were objectives for the MF agreed? Explore the role of facilitator/farmer/community group. Was the process good? ( CG members may not even know there are objectives - so may need to prompt about what the programme of events is aiming to achieve)
• Are you aware that the farm objectives may be monitored/measured? Do you know how? If not being monitored, why not? (Take specific objectives and explore the monitoring process). (Explore farmers' views on sharing financial information, what level is needed/acceptable, how it is being done now and how might it be done either better or at all.
• Are objectives being monitored in your wider community group? What is being monitored and how are you doing this? (Prompt to draw this out).
• To what extent do you think the objectives for the MF have been achieved?
• How successful do you think the process has been in achieving these objectives?
  (Look at specific objectives by farm e.g. - Cropping, Livestock etc and refer to this)
• Have you made any changes to your farm arising from the MF programme? What are they?
• What did you think of specific events using external experts such as vets, etc? (i.e. Soil Improvement, Calving Patterns, Ewe Fitness - specific for each farm). What were the most interesting topic areas from your perspective? Can you say why you found these most interesting. (Need to uncover whether it was totally new ideas, different ways of what they already do to improve efficiency/output etc or just because it was interesting but of no immediate relevance!)
• How were these meetings run? Explore level of practical work/talking/listening/facilitation. Was this mix satisfactory? What in your opinion made some sessions stand out as being particularly good or effective?
• Overall, did you find the meetings useful? Why/why not? What benefits did you get from the meeting in terms of:
  • personal?
  • business?
  • community?
• Do you think relationships have changed within the community groups? How? How well did you know group members beforehand? How important is this to the success of the programme? (Prompt to get examples of new forms of community interaction - sharing of skills/equipment/new trading relationships etc if they exist. There may be bad experiences too.)
• Do you think the MF programme has any wider benefits for:
  • businesses?
  • the environment?
  • socially?
• How might the overall programme evolve for the future? How could it be improved?
• Do you think the programme should be rolled out more widely across Scotland? If so how do you think this is best funded? Is there a place for farmers to contribute to the costs?
• Do you see a role for the MF approach in developing improved approaches to environmental management on farms and for promoting the need for other forms of income or employment? (This is an important aspect - must make sure this doesn't get lost at the end because of time pressures.)
• Which information do you receive/activities do you participate in which influence how you manage your farm? (Please list the 3 most important activities - farming press, discussion groups, etc - what are their main sources of information other than MF?)
• How do you rate the value of the MF approach compared to all of the other forms of information/advice that you receive regarding changing farm practices?
• Better/same/worse
• What if any are the key benefits of the MF approach versus others?
• Any other comments on the programme?

Thank and Close

Role and Effectiveness of Scottish Monitor Farms

Depth interview discussion guide - Facilitators

Introduction

Good morning/ afternoon. My name is …..from ADAS. As you know, we have been commissioned by the Scottish Government to consider the effectiveness of the monitor farm concept in Scotland. We are talking to a range of stakeholders, including funders, facilitators and of course farmers themselves. Many thanks for agreeing to take part in this interview.

Overall

• First of all, could you give me a little bit of background about your organisation and your role?
• How did you get involved with the Monitor Farm project? (What was the motivation for you and your organisation?)
• How did you find managing the process? (What were the challenges? How well did you know the farm and community group members beforehand?)
• What worked well/not so well?
• How did you set the programme objectives for the farm? (explore the role of the facilitator in this vis a vis the community group members and monitor farmer themselves)
• Did this process work well? Why/why not?
• How are the objectives being monitored/measured? (if not being measured - why not? If so is it just on the MF itself or on community group farms as well? Explore the mechanisms involved)
• To what extent have the objectives been achieved? Interviewer - refer to specific objectives by farm, e.g. grassland management, expansion of beef herd etc
• What are your views on the usefulness of specific events using external experts such as vets etc? i.e. - Soil Improvement, Calving Patterns, Ewe Fitness (see specific ones for each farm) (need to understand both views on usefulness of external expert meetings as opposed to facilitator and community group alone, as well as specific experts/topics and why good or bad.)
• How were the community groups selected? What criteria were used?
• How well do you think the groups worked? (Probe - there are two dimensions to this -A how well they worked as a group in engaging with the development process on the farm - contributing to discussions and influencing decisions -B in taking on board knowledge and applying in their own businesses)
• Would you do anything different in future?
• Do you think relationships may have changed within the community groups? How?
• What impacts have the programmes had on group members businesses?
• Do you think the programme had impacts on businesses that are not group members? How? (Probe - How both in mechanism and what effects?)
• What do you see as the wider benefits from the programme:
• • to the businesses?
  • to the environment?
  • socially?
• How might the overall programme evolve for the future?
• What do you think of the MF approach to develop improved approaches to environmental management on farms and for promoting the need for other forms of income or employment?
• How do you view the role of MFs in relation to all of the other forms of information/advice etc that farmers can receive?
• What do you think of current levels and sources of funding?
• How do you see funding in the future?
• Do you have any other comments on the process/programme?

Thank and Close

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