Dataset Information

Influencing Change: When "Best Practice" Changes and the Prototypical Good Farmer Turns Bad.

ABSTRACT: Twenty-nine farmers with a flock prevalence of lameness >5% were visited in 2013. They participated in a facilitated discussion on treatment of footrot, and evidence-based new "best practice." One year later, farmers were revisited and management and motivators for change were discussed. Farmers were asked how they would persuade other farmers to adopt "best practice." Initially, most participants were resigned to having lame sheep. They believed that prototypical "good farmers" (including trusted family) practiced foot trimming, the traditional "best practice" and that the new "best practice" would be expensive and time consuming. Between 2013 and 2014 lameness prevalence reduced from 7.6 to 4.3%. The major behavioral changes were reduction in foot trimming, increased use of antibacterials to treat footrot, and treating sheep within a week of becoming lame. In 2014, participants were re-interviewed. They reported that an increased knowledge of the evidence-base, trust in the facilitator and talking to other trusted farmers who had already adopted the new "best practice" overcame concerns about the prototypical "good farmer" and motivated change. Persistent change occurred because participants observed health benefits for their sheep and that the new "best practice" had saved time and money. Participants stated that other farmers would be convinced to change to the new "best practice" because it saved time and money, ironically, these were among the original barriers to change. This is possibly an example of cognitive dissonance because farmers had become positive about the benefits of saving time and money following a change in their own behaviors.

SUBMITTER: Green L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7136422 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Influencing Change: When "Best Practice" Changes and the Prototypical Good Farmer Turns Bad.

Green Laura L Kaler Jasmeet J Liu Nicola N Ferguson Eamonn E

Frontiers in veterinary science 20200331

Twenty-nine farmers with a flock prevalence of lameness >5% were visited in 2013. They participated in a facilitated discussion on treatment of footrot, and evidence-based new "best practice." One year later, farmers were revisited and management and motivators for change were discussed. Farmers were asked how they would persuade other farmers to adopt "best practice." Initially, most participants were resigned to having lame sheep. They believed that prototypical "good farmers" (including trust ...[more]

PMID: 32296722

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Project description:There is interest in understanding how farmers' behaviour influences their management of livestock. We extend the theory of planned behaviour with farmers attitudes, beliefs, emotions and personality to investigate how these are associated with management of livestock disease using the example of footrot (FR) in sheep. In May 2013 a one-year retrospective questionnaire was sent to 4000 sheep farmers in England, requesting data on lameness prevalence, management of footrot, farm/flock descriptors, and farmer-orientated themes: barriers to treating footrot, opinions and knowledge of footrot, relating to other people and personality. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to make composite variables from explanatory variables and latent class (LC) analysis was used to subgroup farmers, based on nine managements of FR. Associations between LC and composite variables were investigated using multinomial logistic regression. Negative binomial regression was used to investigate associations between the proportion of lame sheep and composite and personality variables. The useable response rate was 32% and 97% of farmers reported having lame sheep; the geometric mean prevalence of lameness (GMPL) was 3.7% (95% CI 3.51%-3.86%). Participants grouped into three latent classes; LC1 (best practice-treat FR within 3days of sheep becoming lame; use injectable and topical antibiotics; avoid foot trimming), 11% farmers), LC2 (slow to act, 57%) and LC3 (slow to act, delayed culling, 32%), with GMPL 2.95%, 3.60% and 4.10% respectively. Farmers who reported the production cycle as a barrier to treating sheep with FR were more likely to be in LC2 (RRR 1.36) than LC1. Negative emotions towards FR were associated with higher risk of being in LC2 (RRR 1.39) than LC1. Knowledge of preventing FR spread was associated with a lower risk of being in LC2 (RRR 0.46) or LC3 (RRR 0.34) than LC1. Knowledge about FR transmission was associated with a lower risk of being in LC3 (RRR 0.64) than LC1. An increased risk of lameness was associated with the production cycle being a barrier to treating sheep with FR (IRR 1.13), negative emotions towards FR (IRR 1.13) and feelings of hopelessness towards FR (IRR 1.20). Conscientiousness (IRR 0.95) and understanding the importance of active control of lameness (IRR 0.76) were associated with reduced risk of lameness. We conclude that emotions and personality are associated with differences in farmer management of FR and prevalence of lameness. Further understanding how personality and emotions influence change in behaviour is key to increasing uptake of new information.

Dataset Information

Influencing Change: When "Best Practice" Changes and the Prototypical Good Farmer Turns Bad.

Publications

Influencing Change: When "Best Practice" Changes and the Prototypical Good Farmer Turns Bad.

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