Éduquer ses veaux et génisses : un savoir empirique pertinent pour l'agroenvironnement en montagne?

摘要

Grazing contracts designed to protect biodiversity are becoming common fare although the question of appropriate practices has not yet been settled. This inspired the study, undertaken by the HERBIVORIE research network, of the impact of herbivores on plant dynamics in mountain areas. We interviewed herders who rear dairy cows which they claimed were perfectly able to graze on steep, bushy slopes in the Bauges mountains (northern French Alps). The survey was carried out using comprehensive interviewing techniques. Several reasons encourage the herders to graze their animals on steep slopes: urbanisation, gentler grasslands reserved for haymaking and dairy cows milked in the pastures, financial incentives to use grazing as a method to control scrub encroachment. Yet, current technical models discourage farmers from grazing non-controlled areas except with specialised breeds. We observed herders using steep uneven, bushy terrain for grazing dairy breeds (from the Holstein to the Tarine). All of them feel that the capacity to make best use of these lands can be traced to appropriate animal rearing practices, far more than to breed characteristics. Some herders are careful to teach their young cattle to use steep sloped lands. They say this is important because cows raised on lowland pastures are clumsy in the mountains and are accident-prone. They consider "education" to mean taking calves as young as 6-8 months old, and then heifers, to graze on special plots. These educational techniques and the behavioural diversity described by the herders raise the question of the "culture" of domestic herbivores and the role of herders in inter-generational transmission of the herd's skills. It may be profitable to encourage these practices and to include these learning areas in agro-environmental contracts.%La contractualisation du pâturage à fin de conservation de la biodiversité devient affaire courante, mais la question des pratiques appropriées demeure. C'est pourquoi nous avons enquêté auprès d'éleveurs revendiquant d'élever des vaches laitières compétentes pour le pâturage de terrains très pentus et embroussaillés dans les Bauges (Savoie et Haute-Savoie). Pour tous, indépendamment des races élevées -elles sont diverses -, l'aptitude des vaches à tirer parti de ces milieux résulte de pratiques d'élevage appropriées, bien plus que des caractéristiques raciales auxquelles se cantonnent les références en vigueur. Certains éleveurs veillent à apprendre spécifiquement à leurs jeunes bovins l'usage des fortes pentes. Ces pratiques d'apprentissage et la gamme des comportements évoqués incitent à s'interroger sur la « culture » des herbivores domestiques. Une perspective opérationnelle serait d'encourager ces pratiques et d'inclure dans les contrats agroenvironnementaux les espaces nécessaires aux apprentissages.