The overall aim of the research was to assess the influence of changes in agricultural policy and regulation on those farms which, during the productivist era, their operators had successfully navigated to a position of dominance in the industry. Four specific objectives arose from this broad aim, which sought to examine large-scale commercial farming overall and to track development and succession on individual matched farms: to investigate how farms, which were relatively large in 1977, subsequently developed during the period of agricultural policy adjustment in the 1980s/1990s; to examine the dynamics of agricultural production systems in relation to the development of large-scale farm businesses between 1941 and the late 1990s; to investigate the opinions and responses of these large-scale farmers to agricultural policy adjustment with the intention of establishing their level of engagement with post-productivity policy measures; to contribute to the development of large-scale farm businesses in the light of the post-productivist transition model of farm business adjustment and agri-environmental change. The data file for 1978 and 1981 for this study contains a subset of the variables from part of the dataset 'Labour and Machinery on Large Arable Farms, 1978-1980', held at the UK Data Archive under SN:1872. The dataset comprises a series of files relating to large-scale farms in the South East of England, which are defined by reference to their total area as either 182 hectares or more in 1941 and/or 300 hectares or more in 1978. One data file comprises a transcription of mainly quantitative elements of the National Farm Survey records of 1941-1943, and includes information relating to farm area, crop and livestock production, labour and machinery usage and an assessment of the physical and managerial condition of the farm. The data file for the 1978 and 1981 surveys cover a similar range of information relating to farm area, crop and livestock production, and labour and machinery usage, though the 1981 survey is more limited. The data file for the most recent survey, carried out between November 1998 and April 1999, also includes a similar range of agricultural variables together with information about farmer involvement with a range of non-agricultural activities and other contemporary issues affecting agriculture. These cover government conservation schemes, diversification, contracting, succession and use of information technology. The 1998-1999 survey includes both factual and attitudinal responses.