Analysis of Dairy Cattle Farmers’ Attitudes Toward the Use of Herd Management Software and Their Willingness to Pay for It: The Case of İzmir Province
Project no. 32829 · Status: Kapanmış · 2025
Summary
<p> This study aimed to analyze dairy cattle farmers’ attitudes toward the use of herd management software and their willingness to pay for such software. The study is based on primary data collected through face-to-face surveys with 166 dairy cattle farmers in İzmir, Türkiye. Factor analysis was employed to identify the underlying dimensions of dairy cattle farmers’ attitudes toward the use of herd management software. The results indicated that the variables were grouped into two main factors: self-efficacy and perceived usefulness. In addition, cluster analysis was conducted to identify distinct farmer segments based on attitudes toward herd management software and to form groups with similar characteristics. Based on the dimensions of self-efficacy and perceived usefulness regarding the use of herd management software, the farmers were classified into three distinct segments: farmers with low-adoption-oriented farmers, confident adopters, and constrained potential adopters. The results showed that farmers in the confident adopters segment were younger on average, had higher educational attainment, and had fewer years of experience in agriculture and dairy farming. Moreover, these farmers exhibited the highest annual willingness to pay for herd management software. The study also found that farmers who were engaged in off-farm employment, whose children were not involved in dairy farming, who employed hired labor, and who kept farm records were more willing to use herd management software. According to the probit model results, farmers’ willingness to use herd management software increased with educational attainment and expenditures on veterinary services, medicine, vaccination, and artificial insemination, while it decreased with increasing age and household size. The Tobit model results, farmers’ willingness to pay decreases with increasing age and land area, while it increases with higher expenditures on veterinary services, medicines, and vaccines. These findings demonstrate that farmer attitudes and socioeconomic characteristics play a decisive role in both the adoption of herd management software and farmers’ willingness to use and pay for such technologies. The study provides important implications for developing targeted agricultural digitalization policies and extension strategies that take farmer heterogeneity into account.</p><p> <strong>Keywords:</strong> Digital agriculture, technology adoption, willingness to use, willingness to pay, dairy farming, herd management software.</p>