Abstract

An assessment of farmer beliefs and attitudes to predict likely use of new beef breeding cow technologies was undertaken with farmers from Northland, King Country, and Hawke`s Bay. In workshops, farmers evaluated the use of twinning through embryo transfer, artificial insemination with sex-sorted encapsulated semen, and terminal sires. The proportions of farmers likely to use the technologies to some extent, were 55, 72, and 83% respectively. Farmers identified the important interactions that would be expected to occur if the technologies were introduced into typical beef farming systems in their area. Attitudes towards each technology and towards selected technology attributes, indicated important considerations for future development of the technologies. These included their ability to: improve breeding cow returns; achieve easy care calvings; and integrate with sheep enterprise management to provide leafy feed for lambs. Consideration of these attributes in technology research, development, and marketing, is likely to improve technology uptake.

TG, Parminter, RS Wilkinson, IS Tarbotton, JC Carter, AML Perkins, WH McMillan, and DC Smeaton

Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Volume 57, , 112-115, 1997