The Importance of Sustainability Indicators in Dairy Farming

Abstract

The objective of this research was to assess the perception of agricultural science undergraduate students from Brazilian institutions on dairy farm sustainability indicators. The total number of survey respondents was 351. Undergraduate students from public institutions rated technical and environmental indicators as the most important. Students who had had previous contact with rural production gave lower scores (lower importance) to environmental indicators and higher scores (higher importance) to economic and technical indicators. Agricultural engineering students attributed lower importance (scores) to environmental indicators than agronomic engineering and veterinary medicine students. On the basis of these findings, the authors conclude that the plurality of students' perceptions on dairy farm sustainability indicators is mainly related to concrete on-farm experiences, differences in syllabus between agricultural science courses, and the public or private nature of the educational system.