US wool industry perceptions of digital record keeping and wool supply-chain traceability

Objective: The objectives of this research were to assess the awareness and perceptions of technology currently available to the US sheep industry, to determine how each industry segment prioritizes data records, to understand what level of premiums are needed and realistic, and to assess changes by industry segment and operation size. Materials and Methods: An online survey was dis(ASI) Convention and through the University of Wyoming Sheep Extension and ASI Emerging Entrepreneurs social media pages. Respondents were asked demographic questions and specific segment questions that assessed knowledge of blockchain, importance of records, and current adoption of technology. All descriptive and ANOVA analyses used R statistical procedures (R Core Team; version 2023.03.0). Least squares means were calculated, and the glm procedure of R was used to develop a binary logit model to assess statistical probabilities. Significance was considered at alpha = 0.05. Results and Discussion: A total of 61 responses were acquired (n = 52 producers; n = 9 wool warehousers/processors), representing operations in 19 US states and Ontario, Canada. Respondents indicated they are some-what familiar with using blockchain technology for tracking records of importance. Adoption of electronic identification (EID) technology and digital record keeping were significant by operation size, with inflection points for operations with <99 head or >2,000 head (i.e., extremes). A market premium 8.1-12% over base price is needed to submit a raw wool core test into a blockchain-based system, but wool warehousers/processors are willing to pay a premium to have access to the records on a blockchain-based system at 4.1-8% over base price. Implications and Applications: Producers and wool warehousers/processors are somewhat familiar with blockchain technology for tracking records of importance, but producer adoption of the current technologies (e.g., EID, software) is limited. Adoption of current management technologies is influenced by operation size, so further work should be conducted to determine the largest barriers to adoption. Further adoption of the current technologies is needed before blockchain technology can be used to its full potential in the sheep industry.