Are farmers motivated to select for heat tolerance? Linking attitudinal factor, perceived climate change impact and social trust to farmers breeding desires

Abstract

This study provides an understanding of dairy farmers' willingness to include heat tolerance in the breeding goals and the modulating effect of socio-psychological factors and farm profile. A survey instrument including a choice experiment was designed to specifically address the trade-off between heat tolerance and milk production level. One hundred and 22 farmers, across cattle, goats and sheep farms were surveyed face-to-face. The results of the experiment show that most farmers perceive that heat stress and climate change are increasingly important problems, and that farming communities should invest more in generating knowledge and resources on mitigation strategies. However, we found limited initial support for selection for heat tolerance. This attitude changed when farmers were presented with objective information on the benefits and limitations of the different breeding choices, after which most farmers supported selection for heat tolerance but only if compromising milk production gains to a small extent. Our results show that farmers' selection choices are driven by the interactions between heat stress risk perception, attitudes toward breeding tools, social trust, the species reared and farm production level. In general, farmers willing to support selection of heat-tolerant animals are those with positive attitudes toward genetic values and genomic information and a strong perception of climate change and heat stress impact on farm. On the contrary, negative support for selection for heat tolerance is found among farmers with high milk production levels, high trust in farming magazines, livestock farmers associations, and veterinarians, and low trust in environmental and animalist groups.