Understanding approaches to sheep / beef production in New Zealand: report on first qualitative interviews of ARGOS sheep / beef participants

Abstract

Sheep/beef farmers comprise a diverse group of individuals with a variety of perspectives on and approaches to sustainable production. This diversity is the product of a broad range of social, cultural, economic, and ecological influences and experiences. It is also possible, however, for commonalities to emerge among the farmers based on their (possibly) shared experiences with similar social and environmental contexts in New Zealand's pastoral agriculture industry. One of the goals of the ARGOS programme is to determine if the adoption of a particular management system (in this case the different panels – Organic, Integrated or Conventional) is influenced to any degree by the social characteristics of farmers. Towards this end, a suite of social methods or approaches (including semistructured interviews, quantitative surveys, participant observation, and interactive activities) have been proposed as means to study the social lives of participants and to draw out any relations between these and management practices – especially those that impact on sustainability. This report documents the first in a series of qualitative interviews with participants in the sheep/beef sector of the ARGOS programme.