Sheep Grazing Organic Vineyards And Orchards: What About Copper Poisoning?

"Sheep have long been allowed to graze in orchards and vineyards during winter, generating benefits for bothbreeders and wine or fruit growers. This practice, which had become scarce because of agricultural specialization, isrecently regaining popularity. However, concerns have raised about the potential risk of Chronic Copper Poisoning (CCP)of sheep – particularly in the context of organic agriculture, which widely uses Cu as a fungicide.CCP is driven by the long-term, symptomless Cu accumulation in the liver, potentially leading to a hemolytic crisis thatgenerally triggers animal death within 48h. Our study aimed at evaluating both the quantity and dynamics of Cu in thecover vegetation of vineyards and orchards, and the potential harmful effects of Cu on the health of sheep that grazetherein. Our results show that i/ Cu content and assimilability is high in the studied plots, and may lead to CCP; ii/surprisingly, sheep show only slight signs of ongoing CCP.

Vidéo « Dessinez le verger de demain ! »: Outil pédagogique d’aide à la conception des vergers agroécologiques - Communication et médiation scientifique Centre INRAE Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Unité de recherche Ecodéveloppement, GRAB, Station la Pugère, Avignon 2019

The report presents a tool to help in the design of agro-ecological orchards: "Design the orchard of tomorrow! "and illustrates some levers that can be used to maximize natural regulation processes and limit the use of inputs. The complexity of plot management is addressed through a board game that allows participants to test different levers, some of which are still at the experimental stage, and to study the interactions between levers. The aim of this participatory tool is to make participants aware of the functioning of agro-ecological systems and, in particular for fruit production, of the biological, agronomic, ecological, technical and economic complexity of sustainable agriculture.Le reportage présente un outil d’aide à la conception des vergers agroécologiques « Dessinez le verger de demain ! » et illustre certains leviers utilisables pour maximiser les processus naturels de régulation et limiter l’usage des intrants. La complexité de l’aménagement des parcelles est abordée via un jeu de plateau grâce auquel les participants peuvent tester différents leviers, certains encore au stade de l’expérimentation, et étudier les interactions entre leviers. L'objectif de cet outil participatif est de sensibiliser les participants au fonctionnement des systèmes agroécologiques et, en particulier pour la production de fruits, à la complexité biologique, agronomique, écologique, technique et économique d’une agriculture durable