Choosing Sustainability: Decision Making and Sustainable Practice Adoption with Examples from U.S. Great Plains Cattle Grazing Systems

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Sustainable intensification of beef cattle production systems will involve widespread adoption of new practices and technologies. Whether these techniques involve genetic enhancement of cattle or forages, new technologies, or a combination of existing management practices, behavioral change on the part of beef cattle producers will be required. Many factors contribute to the likelihood of these changes. Concepts from the social science of behavior change will be useful to scientists and Extension and other professionals wanting to encourage the adoption of new practices and technologies related to sustainable intensification of beef cattle production. This will include consideration of the context of the farms on which they would be used and the farmers who they hope to adopt them, as well as how the practices will be perceived by those farmers. These will influence producer beliefs and attitudes about the natural and social consequences of adoption in addition to its possibility. Integrating these concepts throughout the development and promotion of new practices and technologies may increase the likelihood of widespread adoption. ABSTRACT: Sustainable intensification of animal agriculture will rely on the acceptance and adoption of many new practices and technologies. We discuss the literature related to behavior change and sustainable practice adoption in the context of beef cattle production, focusing on sustainable rotational grazing and the use of cover crops. Research from a variety of contexts is discussed with a conceptual framework that combines diffusion of innovation theory with the reasoned action approach. Background characteristics of producers and their operations as well the characteristics of any new practice/technology will influence producer perceptions of them. These background and perceived practice characteristics will influence producer behavioral, normative, and control beliefs regarding the behavior, which will in turn inform attitudes about the behavior and perceptions regarding behavioral norms and the capacity to adopt new behaviors. Factors such as the demographics of beef cattle producers, land tenure, and labor and credit availability, as well as producers’ concepts of what it means to be a “good farmer”, should inform the conceptualization and development of new practices and technologies to increase the likelihood of their adoption.