Comparative Performance Of Cropping Systems For Animal Feed In France And The United States

The combination of corn, peas and rapeseed, three crops well adapted to soil and climatic European conditions, can form the basis of balanced rations for pig farms. Despite production costs significantly higher, from the farm than those permitted by cropping systems based on corn and soybeans in the US, local supplies of protein-rich materials (PRM) is competitive economically, because of transportation costs and tariff protection on cereals in Europe. However, the supply of local origin PRM is far from meeting the needs of industry feed since nearly half of those needs is imported. This deficit ultimately returns to the question of the balance of French and European crop rotations, showing a surplus of grain and a protein deficit. Various case studies suggest that rebalancing rotations would be possible to improve the local supply and the economic and environmental performance of cropping systems corresponding. This would occur even in areas with already a large enough diversification of crops as Picardy and the Ile de France, analyzed in this article.