LAUSR

Abstract Growing interest in sustainability of food production has put pressure on producers to examine their production practices. In particular, farmers’ use of conservation practices is receiving increasing attention. Previous studies evaluating conservation practice adoption have routinely treated adoption as dichotomous – a farm has either adopted a practice or not. However, for many practices, adoption is more accurately measured in terms of intensity, or extent, of implementation. In this study we examine the factors associated with the intensity of cover crop implementation on U.S. Midwest farms using a two-part hurdle model, which allows for dichotomous adoption and intensity of implementation to be explained by separate processes. Results indicate the factors associated with the initial adoption decision are notably different from those associated with the intensity of implementation. Therefore, to achieve sustainability and conservation goals those influencing conservation decisions must be careful to develop strategies and policies that not just address concerns or remove barriers to initial adoption, but also clearly provide a path towards feasible implementation on a larger portion of farm acres.