Producers Willingness to Adopt a Prescribed Grazing System East of the 100th Meridian

With the climate change concerns facing the United States, the contributions of the beef industry to greenhouse gasses are difficult to overlook. The agriculture industry is estimated to be the largest producer of methane emissions in the United States, and within agriculture, livestock are the largest contributor with cattle producing 73 percent of the methane emissions from all livestock (Johnson and Johnson 1995).

This thesis focuses on factors influencing beef cattle producers’ east of the 100th meridian interest in adopting prescribed grazing; including how a government cost share system could enhance adoption. Information was obtained for the study through a mail survey conducted in early 2013. A total of 8,875 surveys were mailed to beef cattle producers, and 2,274 surveys were returned. The survey included questions regarding the cattle operation, grazing practices, attitudes of the respondent, and willingness to adopt or expand prescribed grazing. Producers were asked about their general interest in prescribed grazing. Interested producers were presented with a hypothetical program that would provide them an incentive payment to adopt prescribed grazing and asked if they would be willing to convert some acreage to prescribed grazing given the incentive payment. If interested, producers were then asked about how much acreage they would convert.

Responses were analyzed in three stages using an ordered probit model of interest level, a binary probit model of willingness to accept an incentive level, and linear regression model of acres that would be converted. These models provide a means to analyze the effects of factors influencing interest in adopting or expanding prescribed grazing, willingness to participate in an incentive program to adopt prescribed grazing, and acreage conversion levels. These results can be used to better understand the willingness of beef cattle producers east of the 100^th meridian to adopt of prescribed grazing and impacts of a prescribed grazing system.