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The relationship between the stockperson’s personality and attitudes and the productivity of dairy cows

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

D. Hanna ,
I. A. Sneddon  and
V. E. Beattie
D. Hanna*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
I. A. Sneddon
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
V. E. Beattie
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
*
E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This study investigated the relationships amongst personality traits and attitudes of 311 dairy stockpeople and the milk yield they obtained. A questionnaire pack consisting of a big-five measure of personality (which includes the traits of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and intellect), a four-factor attitude questionnaire and associated demographic and production questions was posted out to Northern Ireland dairy farmers. Pearson correlations were used to assess the relationship between personality and attitudes and partial correlations were calculated between milk yield and these psychometric measures. The personality traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness were most strongly correlated to positive attitudes towards working with dairy cows. None of the stockpeople’s personality traits were significantly correlated with the milk yield they obtained. Three of the attitude scales, however, were significantly correlated with milk yield; milk yield was related to higher levels of empathy and job satisfaction and lower levels of negative beliefs. These findings, along with previous research, suggest stockperson attitudes may be important in relation to dairy cow welfare and production.

Keywords

stockpersonhuman–animal relationshipattitudepersonalitydairy cow
Type
Full Paper
Information
animal , Volume 3 , Issue 5 , May 2009 , pp. 737 - 743
Copyright
Copyright © The Animal Consortium 2009

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