Animal Welfare Program, Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, 2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4, Canada.
Animal Welfare Program, Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, 2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4, Canada.
Animal. 2021 Jun;15(6):100233. doi: 10.1016/j.animal.2021.100233. Epub 2021 May 25.
Interventions that aim to help farmers change on-farm practices recommend that advisors communicate effectively with farmers, work collaboratively to set goals and provide farmers with resources that are applicable to the farm context. We developed an intervention that aimed to help farmers modify and use a standard operating procedure (SOP) for colostrum management; failure of passive transfer of immunoglobulins is common on dairy farms and SOPs for colostrum management are increasingly required by farm animal welfare assurance programs. We used Realistic Evaluation to evaluate whether, how and why our intervention to help farmers modify and use SOPs for colostrum management facilitated change and provide recommendations based on our approach that can improve the design and implementation of future interventions. We used a multiple case study on five farms over 8 months, collecting data through interviews, participant observation, document analysis and field notes. We identified three mechanisms that influenced whether participants modified and used their SOP. The purpose mechanism distinguished between participants who thought the aim of the SOP was for farm staff to learn and understand how to complete a task versus those who thought that the SOP was only useful for compliance with assurance programs. The utility mechanism distinguished between participants who thought that the SOP would be helpful for daily use on their farm, versus those who did not. The physical text mechanism distinguished between participants who used the templates we provided to modify and use their SOP, versus those who did not. A key contextual factor on all farms was participant belief of having capable and engaged staff on their farm; modification and use of the SOP did not occur unless this was the case. To facilitate change, intervention developers should actively participate in the intervention to develop an understanding of farmer needs, understand the purpose behind different goals set by farmers and integrate tools, advice and resource demonstrations when possible. We conclude that Realistic Evaluation is a useful framework for evaluating how contexts and mechanisms generate outcomes on farms, and to understand how, and in which contexts, complex interventions facilitate change. We suggest that this approach can improve the success of interventions and help direct the approaches used on different farms.
旨在帮助农民改变农场实践的干预措施建议顾问与农民有效沟通，共同协作设定目标，并为农民提供适用于农场环境的资源。我们开发了一种干预措施，旨在帮助农民修改和使用牛初乳管理标准操作程序（SOP）；在奶牛场，免疫球蛋白的被动转移失败很常见，并且农场动物福利保证计划越来越要求制定牛初乳管理的 SOP。我们使用现实评估来评估帮助农民修改和使用牛初乳管理 SOP 的干预措施是否、如何以及为何促进了变化，并根据我们的方法提出了改进未来干预措施的建议。我们对五个农场进行了为期 8 个月的多案例研究，通过访谈、参与式观察、文件分析和实地记录收集数据。我们确定了影响参与者修改和使用 SOP 的三个机制。目的机制区分了认为 SOP 目的是让农场员工学习和理解如何完成任务的参与者与认为 SOP 仅对符合保证计划有用的参与者。实用机制区分了认为 SOP 对他们农场的日常使用有帮助的参与者与不这样认为的参与者。物理文本机制区分了使用我们提供的模板修改和使用 SOP 的参与者与不使用模板的参与者。所有农场的一个关键背景因素是参与者对他们农场有能力和参与的员工的信念；除非如此，否则不会对 SOP 进行修改和使用。为了促进变化，干预措施的开发者应该积极参与干预措施，以了解农民的需求，了解农民设定的不同目标背后的目的，并在可能的情况下整合工具、建议和资源演示。我们得出的结论是，现实评估是评估干预措施在农场中如何产生结果以及了解复杂干预措施如何促进变化的有用框架。我们建议，这种方法可以提高干预措施的成功率，并帮助指导不同农场使用的方法。
