Farmer\u27s intended and actual adoption of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies

A growing body of work aims to understand the impacts of climate change on agriculture as well as farmer’s perceptions of climate change and their likeliness to adopt adapting and mitigating behaviors. Despite this, little work has considered how intention to adopt differs from actual adoption of climate change practices in agriculture. Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior we aim to assess whether different factors affect intended versus actual adoption of climate behaviors among farmers in New Zealand. Data were collected through mixed methods (37 interviews and a telephone survey of 490 farmers) in two regions of New Zealand 2010–2012. Through multiple regression models we test hypotheses related to the Theory of Planned Behavior around the role of attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived capacity in affecting intended and actual adoption. Results suggest that there are different drivers of intended and actual adoption of climate change practices. Climate change attitudes and belief is only associated with intended not actual adoption. We find no evidence that subjective norms (climate change policy support) significantly influence either intention or actual adoption. Only perceived capacity and self-efficacy were important predictors of both intended and actual adoption. These results suggest a disconnect between intended and actual behavior change and that using data about intention as a guiding factor for program and policy design may not be prudent. Furthermore, fostering perceived capacity and self-efficacy for individuals may be crucial for encouraging both intended and actual adoption of climate adapting and mitigating behaviors

Policy and practice certainty for effective uptake of diffuse pollution practices in a light touch regulated country

Although the link between agriculture and diffuse water pollution has been understood for decades, there is still a need to implement effective measures to address this issue. In countries with light-touch regulation, such as New Zealand and Australia, most efforts to promote environmental management practices have relied on voluntary initiatives such as participatory research and extension programmes; the success of which is largely dependent on farmers’ willingness and ability to adopt these practices. Increased understanding of the factors influencing farmer decision-making in this area would aid the promotion of effective advisory services. This study provides insights from 52 qualitative interviews with farmers and from observations of nine farmer meetings and field days. We qualitatively identify factors that influence farmer decision-making regarding the voluntary uptake of water quality practices and develop a typology for categorising farmers according to the factors that influence their decision-making. We find that in light-touch regulated countries certainty around policy and also around the effectiveness of practices is essential, particularly for farmers who delay action until compelled to act due to succession or regulation. The contribution of this paper is threefold: (i) it identifies factors influencing decision-making around the uptake of water quality practices in a light-touch regulated country; (ii) it develops a typology of different farmer types; and (iii) it provides recommendations on policy approaches for countries with light-touch regulation, which has potential relevance for any countries facing changes regarding their agricultural policy, such as post-Brexit policy in the UK

Remote Sensing of Pasture Quality

Worldwide, farming systems are undergoing significant changes due to economic, environmental and social drivers. Agribusinesses must increasingly deliver products specified in terms of safety, health and quality. Increasing constraints are being placed on them by the market, the community and by government to achieve a financial benefit within social and environmental limits (Dynes et al. 2003). In order to meet these goals, producers must know the quantity and quality of the inputs into their feeding systems, be able to reliably predict the products and by-products being generated, and have the skills to be able to manage their business accordingly. Easy access to accurate and objective evaluation of forage is the first key component to meeting these objectives in livestock systems (Dynes et al. 2003) and remote sensing has considerable potential to be informative and cost-effective (Pullanagari et al. 2012b)

Sheep Updates 2003 - Pastures

This session covers seven papers from different authors: 1. Pastures for saline land, Ed Barrett-Lennard 1Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Hayley Norman, Robyn Dynes and David Masters CSIRO Livestock Industries, Centre for Mediterranean Agricultural Research, Floreat Park, 2. Feeding value - the essential link between pastures and animals CSIRO Livestock Industries, Centre for Environmental and Life Sciences 3. ‘Pastures from space’ - how do we do it, how well do we do it and what do producers think about it? Stephen Gherardi Department of Agriculture Western Australia Graham Donald Asoka Edirisinghe Dave Henry CSIRO Livestock Industries Chris Oldham Department of Agriculture Western Australia Richard Smith Department of Land Information Joanne Sneddon University of Western Australia Mike Hyder Department of Agriculture Western Australia Andrew Thompson Department of Primary Industries, Hamilton Victoria Kazue Tanaka Roy Latta Department of Agriculture Western Australia Chris Matthews CRC for Plant-based Management of Dryland Salinity Brad Nutt Department of Agriculture Western Australia Angelo Loi, Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture, UWA Tim Wiley, Department of Agriculture Western Australi

Modelling the effect of nematode parasites on the liveweight gain of lambs grazing alternately with cattle

Paper presented at the 69th New Zealand Grassland Association Conference, 13-15 November 2007, Wairakei.A dynamic model for nematode parasites in lambs which links their adult parasite burden with liveweight gain was extended to investigate alternate grazing with cattle to provide relatively larval-free pasture for finishing lambs. Liveweight performance of weaned lambs was tracked fortnightly under rotational grazing using three cattle:sheep ratios, with three initial parasite burdens and two initial infective larval densities on pasture. Lambs were removed from grazing at 37 kg or if they failed to gain weight during the preceding fortnight. An 80%:20% cattle:sheep ratio reduced larval pasture contamination by 75% but did not affect parasitic burden and total lamb liveweight gain compared with an all-lamb treatment. For low and moderate initial parasitic burdens in the 80%:20% cattle:sheep ratio, 25% of lambs reached 37 kg and 100% gained weight until week 18. This simulation indicated that in organic lamb finishing systems, alternate grazing with cattle provides substantial benefit but only when the initial parasite burden was low or moderate.This work was funded under FRST contract C10X0236 “Natural and Organic”

Milk + meat: How farm management can reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Farm Management: A collective term for making and implementing decisions in organising and operating a farm to meet goals. Value has to outweigh risk, complexity and cost Dairy - being better at managing pasture Sheep and Beef - high quality feed in the right quantity to right stoc

Forages for Reduced Nitrate Leaching

High level goals of project and some detail provided on monitor farms “To reduce nitrate leaching losses from dairy, arable, beef/sheep and mixed farm businesses by 20% from current levels by delivering (by 2020) proven, adoptable pasture and forage crop options for end-users in all of these industries.

Understanding New Zealand farming systems and solutions

Outlines the background and proposed approach to Farm systems project