Abstract
In a first part, the paper will present the socio-economic context of grasslands and forage crops in France over the last decades. The grasslands and forage crops contribute 45% of the total French arable land. Variation in acreage of the various types of soil covers in the various regions will be presented with a special attention to temporary grasslands. The variation in the size of herbivore herds will be described, and especially the number of dairy cows and suckling cows. Data related to seed production of forage species will be presented.
The second part will present the main stakes for the future of grasslands. They are related to (i) balance between income and workload for the farmers, taking into account the common agricultural policy, (ii) quality of animal products in response to end-users’ expectations and (iii) combination of economic performance and environment preservation, with a special interest to reduction of soil and nutrient losses, reduction of fossil energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission, preservation of hosted biodiversity.
Meeting these stakes assigns new goals to breeding. It first requires an increased persistence of grassland stands which may be achieved through either more persistent plants or through exploitation of the population dynamics of swards. It also offers good prospects for mixtures of species as sources of overyielding and more yield persistency. Finally, these stakes offer new prospects for forage legumes, source of nitrogen fertility in cropping systems and protein in animal diets with a positive effect on the grassland biodiversity.
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Huyghe, C., Tabel, C. (2010). Grasslands and Forage Crops in France: Context and Stakes. Consequences for Breeding. In: Huyghe, C. (eds) Sustainable use of Genetic Diversity in Forage and Turf Breeding. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8706-5_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8706-5_1
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