Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

2021

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Economics

First Advisor

Tong Wang

Keywords

Beef producer, Neighborhood practice, Perceived benefit, Rotational grazing

Abstract

Pasture and rangeland make up about 45 percent of the agricultural land in the U.S. Great Plains and one of the most common form of mismanagement of this pasture is overgrazing. Which results in many detrimental effects on environment. Many practitioners endorsed Rotational grazing (RG) as an improved grazing management practice over season-long continuous grazing. The overall goal of the current study is to assess the certain aspects of using RG in the U.S. Great Plains. Using mail survey data of the of 874 beef cattle producers of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas, the study found that neighborhood practice, government agencies, education, and slope of a land significantly affect nonadopters perceived benefits of RG practices. The results of the study further reveal that adopters with a higher proportion of grassland, less liability ratio, a lower share of leased land, and located relatively less steep sloped land generally perceive higher benefits from RG practices. The results of the study also indicate that the RG adopters who received cost share generally have higher proportion of grassland, higher ranch income ratio, fewer adoption years, put higher importance to the university extensions as information source, operate an increased proportion of land with LCC I and II, and located further north to the study region. The results from ordered logistic regression model further indicate that producers are more willing to adopt RG practices in the future with different subsidy amounts those who had more farming experiences, had less grassland acreage, and more liability ratio, emphasize the importance of university extensions, neighboring farms adopted the practices in their region. Furthermore, those who perceive lower initial investment and maintenance costs, and located further west/arid region of the study region are more likely to accept subsidy amount to adopt the practices. Our findings suggest that perceived benefits of RG could vary for producers with different ranch characteristics and regional factors and non-adopters with the aforementioned characteristics may be a suitable target group for public fund investment. Therefore, ranch characteristics, regional factors, non-adopters’ characteristics should be considered in future research and outreach programs formulate the incentive levels required to successfully promote the adoption of RG practices in the U.S. Great Plains.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Rotational grazing -- Great Plains.
Range management -- Great Plains.
Beef cattle -- Feeding and feeds -- Great Plains.

Number of Pages

102

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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Rights Statement

In Copyright