Dairy farmers' values and how their values affect their decision making

Values affect humans' perception of situations and problems and guide our actions. The objective of this study was to explore the values of dairy farmers, and whether their values influenced their decisions to maintain dairy farming or to buy consultancy services. During late fall 2007 we visited and interviewed 90 farmers. First we did a qualitative analysis of the data and then we merged the interview data with the existing database of financial data from the year 2007 to do statistical analyses. We also checked whether the farmers still produced milk in 2013, six years after the interviews. Most farmers had terminal values like keeping up the tradition and to have an interesting work. Value combinations with instrumental values such as to earn money and to produce milk were common. Realizing that many farmers prioritize terminal values over instrumental values has important consequences for dairy companies, dairy consultants and politicians.