Every year the Agricultural centre has its muse cow, plastered on all the posters. For this 59th edition which opens this Saturday, the honor goes to Ovalie and her mahogany dress. But just as much as cattle, it is its breeders who are highlighted this year: Marine and Michel Van Simmertier, who will experience their first show. And for good reason, this couple in their thirties, at the head of a herd of 80 cows in the Cantalstarted in the business in 2018, without either of them coming from an agricultural background.
A profile fiercely sought after at a time when French agriculture is faced with the challenge of generational renewal, with already 100,000 farmers lost in ten years and massive retirements expected by 2030. At a time also when the France sees its cattle herd decrease.
One million cows lost in ten years
2022 was no exception to the rule. “We lost 110,000 suckler cows (intended for meat production) and 80,000 dairy cows (intended for milk production), last year”, points out Caroline Monniot, economist of the‘Institute of Animal Husbandry. Admittedly, there are still 3.1 million suckler cows and 3.4 million dairy cows in France, which makes it the largest cattle herd in Europe. But we have lost three million cows since 1980. “And this decline tends to accelerate, with a million cows lost in the last ten years”, adds Yannick Fialip, president of the “economy” commission of the FNSEA, first agricultural unionhimself a cattle breeder in Haute-Loire.
The first reason is not so much the retirement of breeders, but much more the cessation or reduction of activity of those who are still of working age. “Working with animals involves constant strain, without too many holiday opportunities, begins Caroline Monniot. The days start very early with the milking and there is the calving period, these two or three months during which the breeders multiply the sleepless nights in order to ensure that the calving goes well. »
Farms that are closing or becoming green
An exhausting job for often very low incomes, “among the lowest in the agricultural profession, says Yannick Fialip. Situations vary, but the average is between 15,000 and 20,000 euros in annual income. The union official cites the Egalim law, promulgated in November 2018, with the aim of ensuring better prices paid to farmers. “It’s starting to pay off,” he said. But the Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine have increased the burdens considerably, so the situation has not improved much. »
Result: some are throwing in the towel and turning their backs on agriculture. These radical conversions are stronger in certain corners of France, “in mountain areas in particular, where it can be difficult to have an agricultural activity other than livestock farming”, explains Caroline Monniot. In the plain*, where the farm model combines polycultures and breeding, Yannick Fialip speaks more of “a revegetation of farms”. “Farmers are separating from their herd or reducing it and increasing their crops, which have been less restrictive and more profitable in recent years,” he explains.
Massive retirements further accentuate “decapitalization”. “This profession of cattle breeders is of little interest to the younger generations, so many farms are taken over by neighboring farmers, who keep the land to increase their crops, but not the herd”, analyzes Caroline Monniot.
Breaking the taboo of this decline
If these trends are confirmed, France could lose another 584,000 suckler cows and 441,000 dairy cows by 2030 compared to 2021, table the Institut de l’Elevage.
Definitely bad news? This is because cattle farming has a heavy carbon footprint, linked in particular to the methane released by cows through their farts and burps**. “There is no agricultural transition scenario with a view to achieving climate objectives that does not use this lever of the decline in livestock”, recalls Claudine Foucherot. The whole issue then, for the director of the “Forest and Agriculture” program of Institute of Climate Economics (I4CE), is to break the taboo around this subject. “As long as we cannot manage to assume this decline, we deprive ourselves of the means to accompany it, to anticipate it rather than undergo it”.
Breeders are not against moving towards this new approach of “less and better”, slip both Caroline Monniot and Yannick Fialip. But on condition that consumers follow. We’re not there yet, observe I4CE in a study published on Wednesday. “Admittedly, the consumption of meat by French people has decreased a little in recent decades, but at the same time, the French population has increased, explains Claudine Foucherot. Overall, therefore, our meat consumption is increasing… And changing, with more meals prepared or eaten in restaurants. We are moving towards more and less good. »
“It is now that it is played”
The think-tank therefore calls on the public authorities to support this transition much more than they have done to date. “The flagship measure to date is the introduction of vegetarian menus in canteens, continues Claudine Foucherot. It is positive, if only for its pedagogical virtues. But we must go much further. » I4CE imagines several possible measures ***, even touching on taxation, « by indexing for example the VAT on food products according to their environmental impacts ».
Invited to speak by I4CE, Bruno Dufayet, breeder in Cantal and former president of the National Bovine Federation, wants to go further. “The challenge is to concretely and collectively define what is meant by sustainable farming, how far do we place the cursor of herd reduction and how do we involve everyone, including consumers, in this transition “. For him, it is now that it is played, “at the risk if not of importing more and more beef that we consume and for which we do not control the way it is produced”. Yannick Fialip has the same fear and adds that “when a farmer stops breeding, there is no turning back”. “In culture, we can stop carrots and come back to them five years later when the context is more favourable,” he compares. In breeding, this is not possible. The investments are too heavy. »