Animal husbandry systemsThe ‘Cow Power’ project involved the design of new systems for dairy farming, endeavouring to meet the needs of the dairy farmer, the general public, the consumer and the cows themselves wherever possible. To achieve this we needed to conduct research among the public to discover their perceptions and ideals with regard to animal husbandry. The fact that a great many surveys have already been conducted was a complicating factor. This time the client was primarily interested in why the public form a certain impression or make a particular statement.
In association with nextpractice GmbH, White Tree decided to apply a new research methodology: nextexpertizer. This innovative technique uncovers subconscious impressions and ideas by using paired comparison. The respondents made paired comparisons, between animals such as cows and sheep and concepts like food, the consumer, the livestock farmer, nature, the countryside and society. Respondents use their own words to ensure the subjectivity or bias of the interviewer does not influence the results recorded. This method elicits high-quality answers that are reliable, while the powerful analytical software distils the collective patterns from the individual responses.
Several themes, such as genetic manipulation and the de-horning of cattle, were explored in a similar context in a follow-up study conducted in September 2008. This research was conducted among the general public, dairy farmers and the institution’s own scientists in order to determine the similarities and differences in perception.
Feedback from the client:
“Our ideas have been realigned."
“The research has taught us a lot about consumers’ backgrounds and how they perceive developments in agriculture. It also reveals how their perception of dairy farming is not far removed from the way they perceive intensive livestock farming (pigs and poultry).”
"We must take into account what the public think, even if that is not necessarily the truth on the basis of our scientific knowledge. The great thing is that you can search for synergy between actual animal needs and human perceptions of them.”
“We also discovered that words have a colour. The choice of words is essential and reveals something about the underlying perceptions. This method makes that unequivocally obvious. We were also confronted with our own interpretations of a word like ‘romantic’, which can have a whole range of meanings.”
Client’s feedback on www.linkedin.com:
“Corrinne is a remarkably versatile woman, who travels fluidly between academic and business/marketing circles. She did an outstanding job twice in giving sound qualitative results on consumer perceptions of animal husbandry, which had a profound effect. Not only on our design efforts, but also on opening up entrenched convictions within the agricultural sector on how animal welfare should and could be integrated in production processes. Corrinne is committed to delivering results and is service-oriented, even long after official completion of the job.”
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