Norwegian sheep farmers’ perception of the advantages and disadvantages of Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technologies

Abstract

Despite enthusiastic industry and policy developments around Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technology, it is unclear how often the development of new tools is centred around farmers' needs and means. This study aimed to identify the perceived benefits and disadvantages of PLF technology on Norwegian sheep farms. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 Norwegian sheep farmers who use one or more PLF tool. Participants were between 35 and 70 years old, were from three Norwegian regions and farmed between 20 and 400 ewes. The most used technologies were GPS collars monitoring sheep location and registration software. Interview transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and six themes were identified: Resources and Savings, Gaining Control, The User Experience, The Human-Animal Relationship, Trust in Technology and Stewards of the Land. The identified advantages of technology use were time, energy and economic savings that lightened farmers' cognitive burden, offered an increased sense of control gained through access to new data, an improved relationship between the farmers and their sheep, and an increased ability to preserve their farming lifestyle and the land they farm on. However, these benefits were not unanimously agreed upon, with many participants suggesting that the economic costs outweighed the time and energy savings, that farmers’ cognitive burden actually increased, that sellers and digital information could be untrustworthy and that technology posed a risk to the quality of the human-animal relationship. These findings could inform the future development and applications of user-centric PLF products to support the resilience of farming communities.