The Effect of Husbandry System Information on Consumer Willingness to Pay for Dairy Products From Cow-Calf-Contact Systems

This study investigates consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for dairy products from a production system with cow-calf-contact (CCC) based calf management. Our results provide insights into the extent to which consumer-driven change towards such a more animal friendly production practice is viable in Germany. We test the influence of three communication strategies on the WTP for dairy products from a CCC-based calf management production system using a hypothetical contingent valuation survey on a sample of the German internet-using population. We apply a between-subject design with random exposure to one of the communication strategies. Results indicate that consumers are willing to pay an average 20% markup for dairy products from a CCC-based production with a minimum of three months of suckling. Additional information on the benefits of cow-calf interaction for the calf increases the probability of consumers expressing a positive WTP by 8 percentage points and, given a positive WTP, increases stated markups by 16% on average. Information on other consumers’ purchase behaviour or the innovativeness of the production system did not affect stated WTP in our sample. The results offer a potential upper bound for other CCC production systems, e.g., using foster cows. We conclude that information on livestock benefits in consumer communication could raise acceptance and support transitions towards more animal friendly production systems.