What Characterizes Adopters of Virtual Fence in Semi-arid Sagebrush Steppe in the western U.S.?

Adoption of agricultural innovations can be predicted by individual qualities of agricultural operators as well as features of their operations. Together, these characteristics influence perceptions of innovation attributes such as relative advantage and compatibility. Through 26 semi-structured interviews conducted with ranchers in semi-arid sagebrush ecosystems in Oregon, Idaho, and California in the United States, this study examined rancher and operational characteristics of early, potential, and unlikely adopters of virtual fence technology, tracing the relationship between these characteristics, rancher perceptions of different attributes of the innovation, and their subsequent adoption decision. Qualitative analysis and analytic deduction showed that different individual and operational characteristics were associated with the adopter categories and yielded positive or negative perceptions of different innovation attributes. Early adopters of virtual fence typically had larger ranches and were characterized by less uncertainty associated with adoption, and greater willingness to experiment, with specific applications for virtual fence in mind. This is likely due to having received financial assistance to purchase virtual fence hardware. These qualities drove positive perceptions of compatibility and trialability of virtual fence, as well as the belief that there is a relative advantage. Potential adopters, who had not received financial assistance expressed greater uncertainty regarding the potential return on investment, which resulted in uncertainty regarding relative advantage. This uncertainty was exacerbated by negative perceptions of the technology's trialability and observability. Unlikely adopters also perceived greater risk and uncertainty, explained by having ranch operations typically not large enough to realize a benefit from the technology.