This paper describes an approach that has been employed for evaluating and increasing the adoption of livestock improvement technologies that is based on the principles of farming systems and participatory research. The approach involved four main steps; (1) benchmarking the current farming system; (2) identifying constraints to cattle production and strategies to address them; (3) desktop modelling of the production, labour and financial impacts of selected strategies; and (4) on-farm testing and extension of best-bet strategies. The approach has resulted in