Livestock farmers' attitude towards manure separation technology as future strategy

Abstract

In this paper, an ordered probit model is used to assess the factors that affect the probability of livestock farmers having plans to adopt manure separation technology in the future. A survey, based on a postal and computerized questionnaire of representative dairy and pig farms in the Netherlands was carried out in 2009. The results show that age of farmer and a variable which accounts for the interaction between size and location of the farm are important variables explaining the probability of farmers having plans to adopt manure separation technology. Furthermore, farmers who agreed that future application norms are the driving force for considering adoption of manure separation technology were more likely to consider manure separation as the right strategy for their farm. This outcome implies that farmers are considering manure separation as a strategy to survive the more stringent future application norms. Policy implications are that young farmers with bigger Dutch size unit located in manure regions where there is oversupply of manure are more likely to adopt manure separation technology in the futur