Exploring heterogeneous motivations for adopting cow comfort practices among smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya - A best-worst scaling approach

Smallholder dairy farms (SDFs) dominate the milk supply in Kenya and provide livelihoods for more than 2 million households. The majority of SDFs keep fewer than 6 cows, often on pieces of land less than 5 acres in size and produce approximately 5–15 liters of milk per cow per day. Due to resource constraints, inadequate knowledge of proper stall design and management and varying motivations in SDFs, cow housing and management conditions may remain suboptimal, affecting their welfare and farm productivity. Previous interventions recommending cow comfort adjustments in such farms have reported varied levels of compliance with minimal scaling opportunities. The aim of this study was therefore to estimate the relative importance of farmer-reported motivation attributes associated with cow-comfort-related dairy management decisions. Using cross-sectional data from 304 zero-grazing SDFs in Uasin Gishu county of Kenya, this study employed the best-worst scaling approach, a robust methodology in behavioral economics, to explore the stated relative priorities among motivation attributes regarding adopting cow comfort practices. Latent class analysis was used to explore farmer preference differences among relatively homogenous farm groups, and farm characteristics were used to understand their preferences. Results indicated that the highest-ranked attribute reflected intrinsic satisfaction /utility they obtain when knowing their cows were well-kept and healthy. Several economic motivations also ranked highly; including maximizing milk production and farm profitability, sustaining the dairy business, and facilitating time to engage in other activities and ensuring prompt diagnosis and treatment. These preferences differed across farm groups based on farmer, farm practice and herd characteristics, such as sex of the household head, proportion of income obtained from dairy, and education levels. These findings indicate that motivations for cow-comfort-related management decisions are heterogeneous and involve both use-value and non-use-value considerations. Extension and policy strategies may therefore be more effective when they are tailored to farmer segments and when they emphasize immediate farm-level economic and welfare-relevant benefits, rather than relying only on broad public-good messaging about animal welfare.