Rates of adoption and compliance in dairy farming

Report: TR 2017/06

Author: Dr Geoff Kaine & Dr Vic Wright (Geoff Kaine Research)

About this report

Predicting the extent and rate of adoption by farmers of agricultural innovations is central to evaluating the benefits to be had from research, marketing and extension programs. It is also crucial to assessing the likely response of farmers to policies offering incentives for, or compelling, the use of particular agricultural technologies and practices.

The implications of the approach for predicting rates of adoption of innovations, and the role of incentives and extension in influencing those rates, were discussed using the economic concept of  ‘stickiness’. The implications of the approach for predicting rates of compliance with policies regulating the use of farm practices and technologies were also considered.

In this paper the results of testing this approach by conducting a survey of dairy farmers in the Waikato and Waipa are reported. We asked 200 farmers, chosen at random, about the complexity and relative advantage of various farm practices, and how long it took to try and then adopt them. The ideas and methods used here could be applied to any agricultural industry in any region.

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Rates of adoption and compliance in dairy farming [PDF, 1.3 MB]