Cattle Farmers’ Decision-Making Process Regarding Herbicide for Grazing in Brazil

Abstract

This article aims to characterize cattle farmers’ decision-making towards herbicide for grazing in Brazil. The study is based on three fundaments: attributes through the utility function that have an economic approach with emphasis on the country-of-origin attribute; heuristics and biases that have a psychological approach; and values that are predominant in cattle farmers, also with a psychological approach (HOMER; KAHLE, 1988; GUTMAN, 1982). The methodology consists of two stages. The first one has a qualitative approach using three methods: Products Image Configuration (PICT), Laddering and Conjoint Analysis, and the second stage is through an online survey with 75 cattle farmers. Finally, based on the results, cattle farmers’ decision-making model regarding herbicide for grazing in Brazil is proposed including: values; heuristics and biases prevalent; attributes that make up the image of the herbicide; set of preferred attributes and their corresponding levels; resulting factors of decision-making; and segments of cattle farmers.