The role of advisory provision and policy objective information in dairy farmers’ preferences for methane-reducing feed additives

Abstract

In a discrete choice experiment with 320 Swedish dairy farmers, we investigate preferences for methane-reducing feed additives, finding that higher environmental effectiveness and a farm advisor as the provider of accompanying information increase the probability of adoption. Additionally, an information treatment on methane reduction policy objectives lowers willingness to accept for the 30 per cent methane-reduction level of the feed additive. Latent class analysis shows that innovation-friendly farmers are more likely to be adopters, while those with stronger pro-animal-welfare attitudes are not. Finally, we predict feed additive market shares and discuss the economic implications for emissions reduction.