Work in Livestock and its changes

Abstract

For livestock farmers, the diversity of tasks, the freedom to act as he/she likes, the contact with nature and animals explain the attraction, often passionate, for an activity, in constant mutation due to technical and sociological evolutions. Gains in efficiency and productivity are diminished by the increasing size of the structures and the workload remains important. Nowadays livestock farmers seek to better balance work and private life, and to preserve their health, which implies decent working conditions, more daily serenity and a recognition of their role by society. Automation and robotization demand to acquire technological mastery, but allow time-saving and bring flexibility in organizing days. Wage-earning and feminization are developing: they modify farmers’ job and could contribute more to the renewal of the generations. Environmental and animal welfare concerns lead to systems known to be more agro-ecological, but requiring new learning and complex transitions. The head-on questionings to livestock farming are offset by local initiatives demonstrating the social utility of farms which provide jobs, territorial identity and healthy products. The diversity of livestock models in the territories, complementarity between them and other agricultural and non-agricultural activities, as well as the renewal of advisory tools are part of perspectives to arouse the desire to become a farmer. This article presents, in the light of the social, societal and economic changes, the issues under dispute about the work and the profession of the livestock farmers.