Le « coup d’œil » de l’éleveur est-il menacé par l’élevage de précision ?

Abstract

Just like everywhere else, dairy farming in the French Jura is undergoing profound changes. Herd size is increasing as is the adoption of promising technologies. We have been monitoring these changes through a broad qualitative survey since 2014 and have become intrigued by the close relationships that dairy farmers maintain with their cows as well as by the visual skills they employ to manage their herds. We have attempted to grasp the extent of this visual ability from three angles. The skill is put into practice for animal care and in all key dairy farming activities. This visual ability combines numerous indices both in the present moment and over time, all of which help to build precise knowledge. Yet this “knowing how to see” is not only developed on farms, it is also shared with other actors in communities built around the Montbéliarde breed, showcased in livestock competitions and fairs: “to see” is also “to show”. The visual know-how of the farmer coexists with the data from the sensors placed on the animals, thus raising a key issue: is this skill under threat from the new technologies promoted by precision breeding?

Keywords

• dairy farming
• know-how
• expert eye
• precision Farming
• Montbéliarde cattle