Farmers' Adoption on the Application of Natural Rubber Mats for Dairy Farming

Abstract

     The objective of this research was to study farmers' adoption of the natural rubber mats for dairy farming. The natural rubber mat was a new technology in dairy farming which helped keeping cows comfortable, safety, healthy and minimizing diary lameness. The population consisted of 46 farmers who attended the training course on the application of the natural rubber mat of dairy farming. Questionnaires were used for data collection. Percentage, mean and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient were used for data analysis. The results revealed that more than half of dairy farmers were in the adoption stage and adoption level had positive relation to the pattern of dairy housing and amount of family labour in dairy farms (p<.05). A problem found was an expensive price of the natural rubber mat causing farmers to reject the use of the rubber mats because 86.7 percent were small farms (1-20 diary cows). In addition, some farmers needed to obtain a loan from local dairy cooperatives; however, there was no coordinator between dairy cooperatives and farmers. Furthermore, the farmers asked the government's sector or concerned organizations to provide the training on more technology related to rubber mats.