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Context and challenges

When managing dairy cattle, standard practice consists in separating calves from their mothers soon after birth. This has been criticised because it is deemed harmful to animal welfare. Discussions are under way to design livestock management practices that favour relations between young and adult animals. These include the rearing of calves by nurse cows, which is a radical innovation that was developed and disseminated by sociotechnical networks of grassland breeders. It involves entrusting between two and four calves to a lactating cow (generally a replacement heifer) which feeds and rears them for several months (~6).
Initial studies conducted in partnership with grassland farmers have demonstrated the positive effects of this system on the growth and health status of young animals, which the farmers explain by more "natural" rearing conditions (GrazyDaiSy project). However, these "natural" conditions are not complete because the calves are separated from their mothers and the calf and lactating cow need to adopt each other. Thus the welfare and health of calves reared by nurse cows requires specific investigation. In addition, this management method profoundly changes the work of farmers and their relationships with their animals. Farmers are raising questions as to the most efficient techniques for adoption and weaning, and how to establish a positive relationship with future nurse cows.

Objectives

This project aims to study the management of calf rearing by nurse cows based on the concerns expressed by breeders and according to an interdisciplinary approach involving the social sciences (sociology, social geography) and animal sciences (ethology, animal husbandry, veterinary medicine). The objective is to establish a dialogue between these two disciplinary fields in order to review their respective representations of the relationships between humans and farmed livestock, not only to acquire new scientific knowledge but also to verify the pertinence of the practice of using nurse cows for calves in terms of the welfare and health of the animals.
The first research area concerns the relationships between livestock farmers and calves and nurse cows in terms of developing new professional know-how. The second focuses on the welfare of the calves and cows, determined by linking health and animal behaviour. In both areas, two types of data will be compared: the knowledge held by livestock farmers regarding their animals, formalised from comprehensive social science surveys (Eastern France and Franche Comté), and the knowledge produced by animal scientists based on experimental systems (Mirecourt and Marcenat experimental farms). Using a participative approach, the project will include opportunities for the exchange of knowledge with livestock farmers.

Species concerned

Partnerships

• Research Unit for Agrosystems, Territories and Resources (UR SAD-ASTER), Science for Action and Transition (ACT) Division, INRAE : sociology, animal husbandry
• Centre for Rural Economics and Sociology applied to Agriculture and Rural Areas (UMR CASAER), Science for Action and Transition (ACT) Division, INRAE: social geography
• Herbivore Joint Research Unit (UMR UMRH), Animal Physiology and Livestock Systems (PHASE) Division, INRAE: ethology, animal welfare, relationships between humans and animals, animal husbandry.
• Joint Research Unit for Biology, Epidemiology and Risk Analysis in Animals (BIOEPAR), Animal Health (SA) Division, INRAE: epidemiology, parasitology
• External partners: Breeding Institute (IDELE); "Bio en Grand Est" network.