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    12. Identifying Barriers to Forage Innovation: Native Grasses and Producer Knowledge

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Keyser, Patrick (author), Schexnayder, Susan (author), Willcox, Adam (author), Bates, Gary (author), Boyer, Christopher N. (author), and Center for Native Grasslands Management Human Dimensions Research Lab University of Tennessee
    Format:
    Online journal article
    Publication Date:
    2019-12-12
    Published:
    United States: Extension Journal, Inc.
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 124 Document Number: D11232
    Journal Title:
    Journal of Extension
    Journal Title Details:
    57(6)
    Notes:
    10 pages, via online journal, Adoption of native warm-season grasses (NWSGs) in the tall fescue belt is limited despite studies documenting the potential contribution of these forages to profitable beef production. On the basis of two surveys conducted in Tennessee, a survey of beef producers and a survey of agricultural professionals, we evaluated perceptions of NWSG forages and how those perceptions could influence their adoption. Although agricultural professionals were more familiar with NWSGs than producers, both populations had limited knowledge regarding these forages, indicating that additional Extension education is needed. Our results provide useful guidance for developing NWSG forage educational programs for producers and agricultural professionals.

    16. Public communication of soil conservation practices: a large-scale content analysis of wisconsin’s agricultural trade publications

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Chen, K. (author) and Shaw, B. (author)
    Format:
    Journal article
    Publication Date:
    2022-02-10
    Published:
    USA: Soil and Water Conservation Society
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12612
    Journal Title:
    Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
    Journal Title Details:
    V. 77, Iss. 2
    Notes:
    14pgs, The adoption of soil conservation practices by farmers offers the potential to greatly improve soil health and water quality at large geographic scales. In considering the potential benefits of soil conservation practices to improve ecological outcomes on farms, it is important to ascertain where farmers get their information about soil conservation and what type of information they are exposed to and by whom. One primary way that farmers learn about soil conservation practices is via agricultural trade publications (ATPs). We conducted a content analysis using a computational text analysis method to analyze all the online soil conservation coverage from four influential ATPs in Wisconsin. We focused on 10 different soil conservation practices and found that the most frequently covered soil conservation practices were tillage, manure, and grazing. Additionally, we analyzed the thematic categories for how each soil conservation practice was covered in terms of agricultural, environmental and economic benefits. Generally, articles tended to mention environmental and economic benefits more than agricultural benefits across all soil conservation practices. We also unpacked the subcategories of environmental benefits using cover crops practice as an example to demonstrate how it was covered in terms of subcategories such as biodiversity, sustainability, climate change, water quality, and soil health. Our analysis also looked at how agricultural technology was featured in the stories about soil conservation and found that this category was regularly mentioned for each practice. Finally, we examined the message sources for stories on soil conservation and found that extension and the federal government were the most the frequently cited entities. We also discussed how this form of computational content analysis can provide longitudinal insights about trends in a particular soil conservation practice like cover crops, which showed a clear upward trend in coverage in ATPs for the time period studied. These nuanced content analyses provide insights into what types of thematic categories are featured about soil conservation practices covered in ATPs in Wisconsin. Advocates of soil conservation practices can use our results to determine if some practices could benefit from more attention in ATPs as well as which benefits and themes have received more media coverage. Additionally, stakeholders from entities that serve as different message sources can determine how their organizations are doing as the spokespeople for the soil conservation practices being advocated.

    18. Seeing is not always believing: crop loss and climate change perceptions among farm advisors

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Niles, Meredith T. (author), Wiener, Sarah (author), Schattman, Rachel E. (author), Roesch-McNally, Gabrielle (author), and Reyes, Julian (author)
    Format:
    Online journal article
    Publication Date:
    2019-03-26
    Published:
    USA: IOP Publishing Ltd.
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10345
    Journal Title:
    Environmental Research Letters
    Journal Title Details:
    14(4)
    Notes:
    11 pages., Via online journal article., As climate change is expected to significantly affect agricultural systems globally, agricultural farm advisors have been increasingly recognized as an important resource in helping farmers address these challenges. While there have been many studies exploring the climate change belief and risk perceptions as well as behaviors of both farmers and agricultural farm advisors, there are very few studies that have explored how these perceptions relate to actual climate impacts in agriculture. Here we couple survey data from United States Department of Agriculture farm service employees (n = 6, 514) with historical crop loss data across the United States to explore the relationship of actual climate-related crop losses on farm to farm advisor perceptions of climate change and future farmer needs. Using structural equation modelling we find that among farm advisors that work directly with farms on disaster and crop loss issues, there is a significant positive relationship between crop loss and perceived weather variability changes, while across all farm advisors crop loss is associated with reduced likelihood to believe in anthropogenic climate change. Further, we find that weather variability perceptions are the most consistently and highly correlated with farm advisors' perceptions about the need for farm adaptation and future farmer needs. These results suggest that seeing crop loss may not lead to climate change belief, but may drive weather variability perceptions, which in turn affect farm adaptation perceptions. This lends further evidence to the debate over terminology in climate change communication and outreach, suggesting that weather variability may be the most salient among agricultural advisors.

    20. The Adoption of food safety practices and the implications of regulation for small scale farms

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Canales, Elizabeth (author), Silva, Juan (author), and Anderson, Joy (author)
    Format:
    Journal article
    Publication Date:
    2022-06-16
    Published:
    USA: Clemson University Press
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12604
    Journal Title:
    Journal of Extension
    Journal Title Details:
    V. 60, N.2
    Notes:
    10 pages, In this article we examine the adoption of food safety practices among produce growers in the south and discuss implications of food safety regulations in the U.S. Produce growers have adopted standard food safety practices to varying degrees, but there is still an adoption gap, particularly among small scale operations. Market-driven and regulatory food safety enforcement continues to tighten, and this can further hinder market access for small scale producers.