Farmer welfare and animal welfare- Exploring the relationship between farmer’s occupational well-being and stress, farm expansion and animal welfare
Introduction
Animal welfare is a term used to express ethical concerns about the quality of life experienced by animals, particularly animals that are used by human beings in production agriculture (Duncan and Fraser, 1997; Fraser and Weary, 2004; Tannenbaum, 1991). Several studies have recognized the importance of farmer’s managerial abilities, attitudes and behavior in dealing with animal health and welfare issues (Hansen et al., 2011; Vaarst and Tind Sørensen, 2009; Jansen et al., 2009; Kristensen and Enevoldsen, 2008). The characteristics of stockpeople that may influence the animal welfare standards include knowing and being skilled at the techniques they use, job motivation and satisfaction, and attitudes (Hemsworth and Coleman, 2009). We hypothesized that there is a relationship between farmers’ occupational well-being and stress on one side, and how well they take care of their animals on the other. Building on a questionnaire to dairy farmers, and a newly developed prototype of an animal welfare indicator (AWI), we aim to explore this relationship. The AWI is developed using variables listed in the OIE (2016) standard available in the Norwegian Animal Recording System (Österås et al., 2007).
Job demand and job control are essential workplace characteristics which influences employee well-being, motivation, and productivity; as well as various physiological and psychological strains (Karasek, 1979). Thus, in a review Judge et al. (2001) found an average correlation between job satisfaction and productivity of 0.30, or moderate. Job demands include time pressure, exacting task requirements, and overall workload demands (De Jonge and Dormann, 2006). Perceptions of work stress relate to the perceived degree of “fit” between work demands and the availability of coping resources such as e.g. personal or work characteristics. Job control constitutes an individual's belief in his/her ability to affect a desired change on their work environment (Greenberger and Strasser, 1986). Control allows employees to change work processes to reduce the level of perceived stress. Events that have a stressing effect on humans are called stressors, and physiological and behavioral responses to stressors constitute strain, typically high levels of discomfort and exhaustion (Cooper et al., 2001). Strain is highest when job demands are high and job control is low.
Workplace support refers to helpful workplace relationships, generally with supervisors and coworkers, regarding job-related matters (Price, 1997). High levels of support are associated with increased well-being, whereas a perceived lack of support can be a catalyst for strain (Van der Doef and Maes, 1999; Häusser et al., 2010). Such support from colleagues may also make one perceive one’s work more acceptable (Kaufmann and Kaufmann, 2009). Positive emotions increase an individuals’ optimism, defined by Seligman (1998) as an attributional style that explains positive events in terms of personal, permanent, and pervasive causes and negative events in terms of external, temporary, and situation-specific ones. A pessimistic explanatory style does the opposite, thus undermining the favorable impact of successes and exacerbating the destructive potential of failures. Optimism has a positive effect on job satisfaction, job performance and work happiness (Youssef and Luthans, 2007).
Farming is considered a stressful occupation (McGregor et al., 1995), and stressed farmers are not coping well (Deary et al., 1997; Ang, 2010). Work- related stressors among farmers can be financial difficulties, lack of time, paper work and unfavorable weather (McGregor et al., 1995). Other significant sources of reported occupational stress have been overwork and labor shortage, the weather and adjusting to government regulations (Booth and Lloyd, 1999; Firth et al., 2006; Ang, 2010). Thus, increased work demands in Norwegian farming are associated with an increase in mental complaints among farmers (Logstein, 2016). Further, coping with new legislation and media criticism are also among stressors for farmers (Booth and Lloyd, 1999; Hansen, 2013) and family involvement in farming business, lack of understanding from outsiders, illness and not having enough time to spend with family are also among stressors reported (Fennell et al., 2016; Kearney et al., 2014). Some research has also stressed the importance of loneliness and geographical isolation as sources of stress in farming (Eberhardt and Pooyan, 1990; Judd et al., 2006). Interestingly, having close friends was associated with better mental health among Norwegian male farmers (Logstein, 2016). Finally, how farmers cope with stress varies.
The following definition of animal welfare endorsed by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in 2008 emphasizes the role of management and handling:
‘An animal is in a good state of welfare if (as indicated by scientific evidence) it is healthy,
comfortable, well nourished, safe, able to express innate behaviour, and if it is not suffering
from unpleasant states such as pain, fear, and distress. Good animal welfare requires disease prevention and veterinary treatment, appropriate shelter, management, nutrition, humane handling and humane slaughter/killing (the author’s highlights). Animal welfare refers to the state of the animal; the treatment that an animal receives is covered by other terms such as animal care, animal husbandry, and humane treatment.’
Stockmanship has been described as a “human activity that applies the ability, knowledge, skills and common sense necessary in optimizing health, welfare, husbandry, management, and thereby both physical and financial performance, in animal production” (Benyon, 1991).
The UK Farm Animal Welfare Council (2007) acknowledges stockmanship as the single most important influence on farm animal welfare and have proposed three attributes they call the ‘Three Essentials of Stockmanship’, namely knowledge and skills in animal husbandry, and personal qualities (ibid.). The latter attribute is described as ‘affinity and empathy with animals, dedication and patience’ (ibid.). The skills, knowledge and motivation of stockpeople to effectively care for and manage their animals are integral to animal welfare (Hemsworth, 2018). Several studies have demonstrated a sequential relationship between the stockperson’s attitudes and behaviour, and the animals’ levels of fear, productivity, health and welfare (e.g. Hemsworth et al., 2000; Waiblinger et al., 2002; Nawroth, 2017; Ivemeyer et al., 2018). Further, a recent Canadian study show associations between on-farm welfare indicators and productivity and profitability (Villetaz Robichaud et al., 2019).
Our knowledge of the relationship between farmer welfare and animal welfare is limited. In this paper the aim is to explore the relationship between the AWI and farmers’ occupational well- being and stress. Further, we aim to explore how dairy farmers’ experienced degree of loneliness, satisfaction with income, optimism and their decision to keep up production influences their decision to expand farming. Finally, we aim to explore how farm expansion (FE) affects the AWI. In Norway, all cowsheds built after 2004 must be free- stalls, to allow cattle to practice the five freedoms. We present the following hypotheses: Hypothesis 1 A high level of farmer occupational well-being (FOW) and a low level of farmers stress (FS) has a positive effect on the AWI, and contrary. Hypothesis 2 A positive relationship exists between farmers occupational wellbeing, their decision to continue production and their decision to expand farming, and FE has a positive impact on the AWI.
Section snippets
The Norwegian context
Compared with the early 1960s, Norwegian agriculture is now much more specialized and mechanized, and it is characterized by increased production, efficiency and workload (Almås, 2002). Most farms continue to be family owned and operated businesses, while some joint farming operations exist. In European context Norwegian agriculture is small-scale. The average farm unit runs around 22 ha, and the average herd size is approximately 27 cows. Only 3 percent of the dairy farms have more than 70
Results
The overall response rate of the AMS-survey was 38%. The AWI was available for only 914 of these respondents, 54% of which have an AMS, more than twice the national average. Focusing on these 914 farmers we merged the AWI with the data from the AMS- survey. In total 774 of the farmers are men and 140 are women. Their age ranges from 22 to 78 years, with a mean of 48. The average milk quota for the farms in the study was 270 537 liters, while the national average was 186 788 (Norwegian
Discussion
How farmers thrive at work is pivotal to productivity and to keep up dairy farming. Our findings in Fig. 1 show that there is a positive relationship between FOW and the AWI, and a negative relationship between FS and the AWI. Albeit moderate, the strengths of the relationships are within the range frequently found in a studies of job satisfaction and stress versus job performance (Judge et al., 2001). Further, the FE model in Fig. 2 shows that farmers who expand their production are more
Conclusions
A link exists between farmer’s occupational well-being, farmer stress and animal welfare measured by the animal welfare index. The findings suggest that higher the occupational well-being and the lower the farmer stress, the better the animal welfare. Further, farmer’s degree of loneliness and satisfaction with income, and farmer’s optimism together with a determination to continue production, are also associated with the animal welfare index indirectly through farm expansion. In this study
Funding
This work was supported by the Research Council of Norway under grant 244231.
Declaration of Competing Interest
None.
Acknowledgements
Ruralis-Institute for rural and regional research and Renate Butlie Hårstad are acknowledged for valuable help with data collection and facilitation. The authors also wish to thank Karianne Muri at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences for valuable comments and help with relevant literature.
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