The Factors Affecting the Satisfaction and Sustainability of the Dairy Cattle Farms: The Case of Muş Province

This study was conducted for the purpose of investigating the satisfaction and sustainability of bovine livestock farms in Muş province along with certain factors known to affect these parameters such as age, educational status, duration of livestock farming, number of animals and race. The research material consisted of the survey data collected from 346 farms in Muş province and 5 districts. Crosstables of data are constituted on SPSS package program and chi square analysis are done for significance testing. Our analysis revealed that 59.4% of the farmers were satisfied with livestock farming and 88.9% of them wanted to keep their livestock. When asked about the reason of the desire for keeping their livestock; 43.3% of the farmers replied that they had no other jobs, 20.1% said that they found the livestock farming profitable, 18.5% declared that they were happy with the income and 9.4% indicated that they enjoyed livestock farming. On the other hand, when the farmers who did not have the desire of keeping their livestock farms were asked about the reason of their choices, the results turned out to be as 72.5% finding it non-profitable, 21.5% not having enough time, and 6% not enjoying animal farming. The effect of the factors such as the type and location of the establishment, the age and educational status of the farmers, the length of the livestock farming, the number of animals and the race were found to be statistically significant (p<0.01) on these decisions. As a result, it is determined that most farmers are satisfied with the livestock and the factors such as profitability, sufficient income and lack of other jobs come to the fore in order to maintain livestock activity. In order to sustain the enterprises, incentives for increasing the income from livestock and reducing the cost are thought to be beneficial.