Effective poultry programming in the next century. User fees for land grant universities-the Scottish experience

Abstract

In 1987 the U.K. government required the organizations through which it provided an extension service to adopt a cost-recovery system. Generally, this requirement applied to all advice with the exception of advice given in the areas of welfare, pollution control, and farm diversification. The Scottish Agricultural College (SAC), which provided advice in Scotland at this time, adopted a strategy aimed at maintaining its extension base in Scotland. The strategy was based on reforming the Extension Service into an Advisory Service. Whereas clients had received information from the Extension Service free of charge, fees were charged for most services offered by the Advisory Service (there were a few exceptions for which the government paid). In order to develop the service, the advisers started servicing contracts outside Scotland, firstly in the U.K. and, more recently, across the world. As the industry has changed, so the service offered has changed, with increasing reliance being put upon specialist advisers who provide advice not to the farm staff but to company technologists.