During early 1997, after focus groups, interviews and a mail survey were administered to a random sample of Grand River watershed dairy farmer in the Grand River watershed of southwestern Ontario. This paper summarizes the main results of the study. We concluded that these farmers have achieved a very good average quality of life. Their farming systems display good productivity, excellent viability and stability and moderate average environmental protection-all important elements of sustainability. This is mainly because they have steady incomes as a result of their supply managed system, excellent cattle genetics, strong family relationships and spirituality. If they had to leave their dairy farms they would miss the open space and country living more than anything else. There is some concern that international free trade agreements may threaten supply management to which the majority attribute their stable and reasonably good incomes. Environmental protection may also be at risk for many dairy farmers. For instance, their present manure management system is a limiting factor preventing as many as a third of them from expanding their herds in addition to such other barriers as the high price that they must pay for the milk quota that they must purchase.
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Filson et al. (2003) studied this question.