Are German farmers ready for ‘warm restructuring’ of the pig sector?

Abstract

Recent statutory changes have increased the pressure on the German livestock sector to adapt. This paper aimed to ascertain whether German pig farmers would be willing to join a pig farming exit scheme similar to the Dutch ‘warm restructuring’ programme. The analysis was based on a discrete choice experiment with 346 pig farmers. The results indicated great interest of the respondents in a government-run decommissioning scheme. Differences in the perception of scheme attributes (compensation offered, demolition requirements, restrictions on future barn construction and slurry intake) and uncertainty among participants were highlighted by the results of a scale-adjusted latent-class estimation