Doctoral thesis (Dissertations and theses)
Caractérisation de la diversité des stratégies conçues par les producteurs laitiers wallons : déterminants socio-économiques et dynamique d’adaptations face aux enjeux passés, présents et futurs
Dalcq, Anne-Catherine
2020
 

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Keywords :
dairy; strategy; producers; determiners; profile; multivariate analysis; sustainability; quality of life; economic; management; calving interval; environment; society; issues; dairy quota removal
Abstract :
[en] Agricultural producers are necessary for reasons of food security but they are subject to great economic, social and environmental issues, jeopardizing their continuity. More particularly, the European dairy producers have recently experienced a big change of their economic and political context following the end of the dairy quota system. For the sustainability of the sector and what this implies for our society and our environment, it is interesting to know the development paths implemented, planned and considered by the producers facing these changes. This thesis studied these development paths from the point of view of the producers, who are the first to be impacted by these changes of context and the first actors of solutions needed to adapt and maintain a profitable activity. The actions and the opinions of the Walloon producers were studied using the technicoeconomic database of Elevéo as well as surveys conducted in 2014-2015 and 2020. The objectives of the thesis were (1) to study the strategies of the producers and the evolution of these strategies in a recent past, their planning from 2020 onwards and their consideration for an ideal future, (2) to study the link between these strategies and other information, reflecting the causes of these choices, the environmental considerations, the wishes for training and the quality of life of the producers, providing an insight of the determining factors and the sustainability of these strategies, (3) to study the relevance to adapt the management depending on the adopted strategy(ies). First, the level of intensification was measured in this thesis thanks to an index created on the basis of several variables related to feeding, coming from the technicoeconomic database. This index aims to provide a more complete and exact measure tool of intensification. Its evolution between 2007 and 2017 was measured per individual to highlight the evolution patterns. We observed that 27% of producers were having a constant evolution, 8% a linear positive tendency, 24% a quadratic evolution with a maximum in 2012, which was a year of dairy crisis. Secondly, just before the end of the dairy quota system (2014-2015), 3 strategies of production in the short term in post quota era were studied and concerned: the increase of the milk quantity produced, the alternative valorization of milk production and the diversification of the activities. We found out that, according to the survey, more than half of the producers (55%) have chosen the status quo in quantity of milk produced, nearly 40% the increase of the production, 10% the alternative valorization and 10% the diversification of the activities. This shows that alternative activities were seldom considered by the producers on the eve of an important change of the production framework, in contrast to the increase of the dairy production activity. Thirdly, the characteristics of the ideal farm of the future were studied throughout 7 strategies : intensive vs. extensive, specialized vs. diversified, weakly vs. strongly based on new technologies, management by an independent producer vs. by an association of producers, familial vs. salarial workforce, production of milk with a standard vs. differentiated quality, for the global vs. local market. From the multivariate analysis of the answers of the producers collected in the 2014-2015 survey, clusters between some characteristics were observed, leading to highlight two models of ideal future farm : the “Local-based extensive”(LBE) model and the “Global-based intensive” (GBI) model supported, respectively, by 26% and 46% of producers respondents. The producers were positioning themselves more or less strongly regarding these two extremes. Hence, a gradient of ideal future farm (IFF) between the model LBE and GBI was defined to express the tendency of a producer to consider a model or the other as ideal. Significant relationships were then observed between the IFF gradient and the variables related to the reasons of the choice of this model, the environmental considerations and the training. Thus, the producers tending to GBI or LBE model do not have the same environmental considerations and represent two different guests in terms of training paths and areas. Fourth, the producers with different production systems were selected to answer a survey concerning their quality of life. No significant relationship was observed between the variables linked to quality of life and their production profile, except for the mixed producers (i.e., having several activities on the farm, i.e., 3rd group that standed out of the variability of the surveyed producers) who showed some lower quality of life results and for the extensive producers who were better supporting the society perception of the agriculture. Thus, the farm model does not seem to impact the quality of life of the producers, except if they have several activities. Fifth, we studied the relevance to vary a management parameter in particular, the calving interval (CI), as a function of the feeding systems. Significantly different gross margins per cow were observed between the herds having different percentages of cows with short or long CI, inside the different feeding systems. This chapter allowed to understand the effects of feeding on the herd and the importance to take them into account to define the herd management that maximizes the economic results. Finally, all these results allowed to establish a temporal evolution of the strategies of dairy producers, to provide an overview of the sustainability of the two models of farm supported for the future and to draw a scenario of the causes leading to this choice. The survey of 2020, conducted in Wallonia, allowed to bring additional information regarding the points raised in this thesis, 5 years after the end of the dairy quota system. The results of this survey validate or record the evolution of the tendencies observed previously and show a change of strategy concerning the ideal future farm. Indeed, the current occurrence is that 49% of the producers are in favour of LBE model vs. 33% of GBI model. In conclusion, the strategies of dairy producers are multiple and have evolved these last years, in relation to the available resources, the mentality of the producers and the changing framework, whose major event was the end of the dairy quota system. The occurrence of the producers between LBE and GBI is important to know given their economic, social and environmental sustainability. Thus, in order to build a suitable framework for the dairy activity for the next years and generations, this information must be taken into account by all the actors on the ground.
Disciplines :
Agriculture & agronomy
Author, co-author :
Dalcq, Anne-Catherine ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département GxABT > Modélisation et développement
Language :
French
Title :
Caractérisation de la diversité des stratégies conçues par les producteurs laitiers wallons : déterminants socio-économiques et dynamique d’adaptations face aux enjeux passés, présents et futurs
Alternative titles :
[en] Caracterisation of the diversity of the strategies conceived by Walloon dairy producers : socioeconomic determiners and dynamic of adaptations faced to the past, present and future issues
Defense date :
30 September 2020
Number of pages :
219
Institution :
ULiège - Université de Liège
Degree :
Docteur en sciences agronomiques et ingénierie biologique
Promotor :
Soyeurt, Hélène  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département GxABT
Beckers, Yves
President :
Lebailly, Philippe  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département GxABT > Modélisation et développement
Secretary :
Brostaux, Yves  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département GxABT > Modélisation et développement
Jury member :
Dogot, Thomas ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département GxABT > Modélisation et développement
Gengler, Nicolas  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département GxABT > Ingénierie des productions animales et nutrition
Hanzen, Christian  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'Enseignement et de Clinique des animaux de Production (DCP)
Wyzen, Benoit
Pellerin, Doris
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since 23 September 2020

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