Determinants of crop rotation choices by pig farmers in Britany

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Determinants of crop rotation choices by pig farmers in Britany

Gilles Martel, Elodie Tersiguel, Jean-Luc Giteau, Yannick Ramonet

To cite this version:

Gilles Martel, Elodie Tersiguel, Jean-Luc Giteau, Yannick Ramonet. Determinants of crop rotation choices by pig farmers in Britany. 64. Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP), Aug 2013, Nantes, France. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Annual Meeting of the Euro- pean Association for Animal Production, pp.664, 2013, Annual Meeting of the European Association for Animal Production. �hal-01210070�

DETERMINANTS OF CROP ROTATION CHOICES BY PIG FARMERS IN BRITTANY

GILLES MARTEL ¹ , E. TERSIGUEL ² , J.-L. GITEAU ² AND Y. RAMONET ²

1 INRA SAD Paysage,

65 rue de Saint-Brieuc 35000 Rennes, France

2 Chambre Régionale d’Agriculture de Bretagne, Technopôle Atalante-Champeaux

35000 Rennes, France

• Pig farms are defined by their herd management (number of animals and batches) rather than their land management (cropping plan)

• Interactions between herd and land management are often not studied

• In Brittany, pig farms have on average 65ha of cultivated area

Is the classical description of the pig farms useful for understanding the land management ?

What are the others explaining factors of land management ?

• Three kinds of cropping plans identified: Wheat and Maize, Forage Production, Diversified

• Cropping plan choice:

 Not linked to herd size or number of batches

 Main factors are structural: presence of a dairy herd or of a feed production unit on farm

 Agronomy, economy, effluent management, land configuration, work are also involved

• Point out:

 Priority given to dairy herd feed

 Lack of cultivated area of specialized pig farms to produce the feed and their simplified cropping plan

Cropping plan

(% agricultural area)

Maize and Wheat

15 farms

Forage production

10 farms

Diversified

3 farms

Type of farms Specialized pig farms with feed

production facilities Farms with pigs and dairy herds Specialized pig farms with crops for selling only

Main reasons of cropping plans Produce the feed for pigs Produce the forage for the dairy herd Specific reasons for each farms, including price and agronomy

Grain Maize 37,8 %

Wheat

37,8 % Wheat 19 %

Grain Maize 19 %

Forage Maize

14%

Grassland

28 % Wheat

30,9 %

Barley : 22,7 % Rapeseed

20,3 %

Material and Methods

28 swine farms were surveyed in Brittany. The sample is heterogeneous in size (from 130 to 1260 sows and from 24 to 270 ha of agricultural area), in effluent management and in existence of a feed production plan on farm.

Data were analyzed by a content analysis and by principal component analysis (PCA) with hierarchical clustering.

Context and Issues Conclusions

Groups identified by PCA and hierarchical clustering Content Analysis : reasons for cropping plan

Farm needs

 feed and litter of farm herds Effluent management

 Regulations on spreading and stocking capacity

 Crop rotation and distribution

Spatial distribution of farm parcels

 Accessibility for grazing, distance to the farm shed, size and shape of

parcels

Economy :

 Benefit and security of a crop

 Subsidies Agronomy

 Soil quality, diseases and performances of crops

Locally

 Parcels exchanges, cordial relationships with neighbors

Work

 Working peaks, work duration, penibility

Cropping plan

Perspectives

• Which consequences on farm durability of those cropping plans ?

 Capacities to cope with drought, subsidies dependency, facility of manure management …

• Which effects on biodiversity and economy at the landscape scale ?

 Simulate landscapes with one cropping plan or mixing cropping plans