Resilence of ruminant organic systems to climatic hazards: a study model in French grassland area - INRAE - Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement
Conference Papers Year : 2023

Resilence of ruminant organic systems to climatic hazards: a study model in French grassland area

Abstract

Climate change and the increase of frequency of climatic perturbations could have a severe impact on organic farms in grassland areas. Years of severe drought such as 2003 or more recently 2022 prove the need to study the adaptations of ruminant farms to climate perturbations. Resilience provides a framework for analyzing livestock systems in this context. Based on structural, technical, and economic data from thirty-six specialized ruminants (beef and dairy cattle, dairy sheep and sheep for meat) organic farms in the Massif Central (a mountain area) monitored between 2014 and 2020, and meteorological data anabling to calculate agro-climatic indicators for each farm and each year, we studied the determinants of the resilience of the systems. Resilience was measured by the stability or increase in the gross value added (gross output without subsidies minus intermediate consumption) of the farm. We used a Partial Least Square (PLS) path modelling and then a hierarchical ascending classification (HAC). In the farms studied, the management of the forage system is primarily based on maximizing grazing at the expense of the constitution of fodder stocks. Maintaining herd production, even at the expense of fodder autonomy, is essential for the resilience of the farms. Good management of the fodder system with fodder stocks also seem to be decisive for the sustainability of farms. Finally, the climatic variation of the seven years of observations did not impact the structures of the farms. Farmers managed the climatic perturbations by maximizing grazing and by purchasing fodder to compensate forage deficits. However, more concentrates were not used to compensate climatic perturbations. More intense hazards could, however, call into question the capacity of the systems to manage climatic variability, mainly if organic fodder become scarce on the market.
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Dates and versions

hal-04200899 , version 1 (08-09-2023)

Identifiers

  • HAL Id : hal-04200899 , version 1

Cite

Patrick Veysset, Célia Boivent. Resilence of ruminant organic systems to climatic hazards: a study model in French grassland area. Book of Abstracts of the 74th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science, INRAE, Aug 2023, Lyon, France. pp.721. ⟨hal-04200899⟩
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