A Market Basket Analysis of Beef Calf Management Practice Adoption

Abstract

Existing studies on calf management practice adoption tend to treat practices individually and, by implication, ignore the possibility that some practices are more likely than others to be jointly adopted. This study applies market basket analysis to examine bundling of calf management practices based on the likelihood of joint adoption using producer survey data. Results indicate that the base practices of horn management, deworming, and castration are the three most widely adopted practices and are more likely to be jointly adopted in varying combinations with other practices. We discuss implications for extension programming and future studies concerned with understanding practice adoption decisions.