Proven Science versus Farmer Perception

Resource use efficiency is at the core of sustainable farming practices for the future of agriculture. Given the abolition of quotas in the EU and the increasing demands for food globally food producers are faced with a challenge to increase production in an environmentally sustainable manner. This paper examines the adoption of a suite of grassland management practices by Irish dairy farmers which are proven to improved grass utilisation. The Technology Acceptance Model is applied to a nationally representative sample of specialist Irish dairy farmers to investigate the use of belief based variables and traditional socioeconomic and demographic variables in predicting intention to use six grassland management practices.