Adaptive multi-paddock grazing and wellbeing: uptake, management practices and mindset among Canadian beef producers

Abstract

ABSTRACT Adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) grazing practices have been debated based on production, environmental and workload impacts, but farmer wellbeing is only beginning to be explored. A panel-based online survey of 200 Canadian beef producers was undertaken in early 2020 with a descriptive aim to explore the uptake, management, mindsets, and wellbeing implications associated with AMP grazing. AMP practices were more common than expected (29%) as well as distinct in grazing regime, featuring fast rotation, and long rests. AMP ranchers reported high physical wellbeing, as well as systems thinking, nontraditional values, a priority for enjoying life and tendency to use a wide range of modes to learn about grazing. Other dimensions of wellbeing, environmental motivations, and gender dimensions suggested by smaller-n studies were not associated with AMP grazing in this work. These insights are important as the federal government begins to promote AMP grazing and its variants as strategies to combat climate change. More nuanced understanding of adaptive grazing and its trajectory would be possible via consistent, longitudinal surveys with improved operationalization of wellbeing concepts, more detailed exploration of educational background, inclusion of religious beliefs, and elucidation of management characteristics beyond grazing regime variables.