Work satisfaction as a component of social sustainability on dairy farms with cow-calf contact or early separation in Austria

Early separation (ES) of cow and calf in dairy farming is a contested topic from an animal welfare point of view. Moreover, farmers often face severe challenges with regards to their work satisfaction and well-being. Both animal welfare and social aspects are crucial for sustainable farming but often play a minor role in sustainability assessments. Fifty-seven cow-calf contact (CCC) and 57 ES farmers from 25 CCC and 25 ES farms, all family-run, filled in a questionnaire on work satisfaction and load as well as personal well-being on a 5-, 7-, or 11-point Likert scale. The items of the questionnaire were grouped into 9 factors based on a principal component analysis, and linear mixed models were calculated to determine potential differences in the factors between rearing systems. Rearing system was associated with work satisfaction and personal well-being depending on the number of calves. Whereas "Professional satisfaction" and "Personal well-being" decreased with increasing number of calves in CCC farmers, there was no such association for ES farmers. However, on farms with a lower number of calves, "Personal well-being" was higher in CCC farmers. In addition, CCC farmers, independent of number of calves, "disliked negative contact with cows" more, a factor that also correlated with higher "Workplace satisfaction" and lower "Perceived workload." Independent of rearing system, a lower number of calves or cows, having an agricultural education, and less experience in working with cattle positively influenced different aspects of work satisfaction and "Personal well-being," and having grown up on a farm was associated with a reduced "Perceived workload." The amount of holiday did not influence any of the factors. Across rearing systems, farmers in our sample reported high work satisfaction and personal well-being. Whereas CCC farming may partly contribute to a higher social sustainability, rearing system-independent factors seem to largely influence farmer well-being.