Categorising farming practices to design sustainable land-use management in mountain areas

Abstract

In European mountain areas, shrub encroachment resulting from farmland abandonment is most often managed by mechanical operations such as roller chopping or controlled burning, which have proved to be ineffective and unsustainable. Recent agroecological findings highlight the potential impact of grazing on long-term shrub dynamics. We thus explored the potential contribution of livestock farms to the management of shrub encroachment. We studied the diversity of livestock practices and strategies on the scale of a small mountain valley in France where a land-use management plan was initiated. We interviewed 33 livestock farmers with a comprehensive approach and analysed the data in partnership with local land-use managers. To categorise farming practices, we used an innovative constructivist method based on knowledge engineering techniques and tools such as repertory grids. Our results show that the diversity of land-use practices can be summed up by ten practices related to three management domains: (i) livestock management, that is, splitting herds into batches, leading animals to pasture and breeding choices; (ii) the feeding system, including indoor feeding during the year, the hierarchy between haymaking and grazing in spring and the system's forage autonomy; and (iii) farmland utilisation and maintenance, which comprises hillside use, spatial configuration of grazed areas, maintenance practices and technical choices to cut meadows. We also show that farmers combine these practices within six types of strategies: ensuring feeding security and simplifying labour (type A), maintaining farmland heritage (type B), taking advantage of hillsides (type C), focusing on animal care (type D), combining areas, periods and batches (type E), or selling on local markets (type F). This makes it possible to identify: (1) farmers' strategies that have the greatest impact on shrub encroachment; and (2) practices that may develop into more sustainable management of shrub encroachment. Our work is thus a first step in developing sustainable land-use management plans in rural areas threatened by shrub encroachment. In return, this deep understanding of farmers' strategies allowed us to address socially pertinent scientific issues related to the dynamics of grazed plant communities.agro-ecosystem management / livestock farming practices / grazing / modelling / shrub encroachment / typology

Consequences of the inscription of local breeds in protected designation of origin cow cheese specifications for the genetic management of the herds

“…Doré et al, 1997;Aubry et al, 1998;Navarrete et al, 2006). Some authors have suggested that this approach is also appropriate for animal production (Bé ranger and Vissac, 1994), and several studies have addressed the question in terms of flexibility in work organization or allocation of grazing at the farm level (Colé no and Duru, 1999;Rapey et al, 2001;Girard et al, 2008;Madelrieux et al, 2009). Our results tackled this question in connection with breeding management at both the herd and population levels, and husbandry at the herd level.…”

Initial insights on the performances and management of dairy cattle herds combining two breeds with contrasting features

“…Each of the 22 recorded interviews was summarised in a template to standardise representation of the collected data. Based on these templates we used a method of data abstraction based on knowledge engineering (Girard et al, 2008) to create key variables divided into classes to characterise the diversity of farmers' practices concerning MDH management. Six variables were constructed: three characterise practices for configuring the breeding herd (V1, V2 and V3), two concern feeding practices (V4 and V5), and one concerns practices that enhance the value of animal products (V6) (Figure 1).…”

Development of the Concept of Agroecology in Europe: A Review

“…Among these factors are the size of the farm, the corporate legal status and the level of specialization, which are positively associated with farm growth rate, also highlighting viable diversification strategies through agricultural processing or the contracting of agro-environmental schemes [53]. Another aspect referring to agroecological practices was analyzed at a mountainous site in France, finding a potential contribution of livestock farms in the management of the invasion of shrubs, by implementing a variety of appropriate management and feeding practices of livestock and soil conservation [54].…”