Livestock Farm Networks, a system at the center of French farming development

The Livestock Farm Networks system is dedicated to the development of her­bivore farming. As the Networks result from the history of French agricultural development, they are found throughout France and are organized at local level. The originality of the system lies in the partnerships between farmers, cham­bers of agriculture and the French Livestock Institute, and in that it uses a global approach to take into account the diversity of livestock farming regions and the study of livestock farming systems. The aim is not to be exhaustive, but to be representative of herbivore farming systems based on the selection of the studied systems. The aim is also to assess the evolution of these systems and to dissemi­nate the benchmarks obtained from the monitoring of 1900 farms by 210 cham­ber-of-agriculture agents, guided by 35 project leaders from the French Livestock Institute, and financed and supported by public authorities and the professional agriculture bodies. The regional and national enhancement of the Networks are aimed at different audiences: farmers, advisers, teachers (for advice or training), individuals or collectives, and local and national decision makers to improve their understanding of livestock farming systems and to measure the impact of new farming policies and lead their implementation. We also show the capac­ity of the Networks to mobilize themselves on emerging themes. Sustainability, competitiveness, working conditions or even environmental issues have been covered by the study fields of the system, well before sustainable development became a central theme. The Networks as a partnership system are sometimes complex to manage and may appear costly, but the strong and well-recognized partnership has made them a valuable resource and ensures their recognition and legitimacy. The variety of farming productions and the heterogeneous nature of the farming systems are good promoters of innovations and enable French agriculture to adapt to new challenges. The Networks not only enable the obser­vation of these evolutions, but they also act as their catalyst and guide, and help disseminate them

Le travail en élevage et ses mutations

Le travail en élevage et ses mutations. Rencontres Recherches Ruminant

Foil activation studies of spectral variations in the MUSE4 critical configuration

International audienceThe MUSE4 phase of the MUSE (Multiplication with an external source) programme has been launched recently at the MASURCA facility at Cadarache (France). This series of integral experiments relevant to accelerator driven systems (ADSs) consists in studying a reference critical fast-spectrum configuration, followed by three different subcritical modifications of the same, each driven by an external neutron source produced via an accelerator. The presence of the accelerator tube in the core creates new types of heterogeneities, the effects of which need to be modelled and quantified by appropriate calculational tools. A part of the unique ADS-relevant validation base being provided by MUSE4 are results from a wide range of activation foil measurements covering various reaction rates, both with and without thresholds. Each experimental campaign consists in irradiating the foils in different representative locations to characterise the new types of spectral variations. This paper presents experimental results obtained in the reference critical MUSE4 configuration. Comparisons are made with calculations using both deterministic (ERANOS-1.2) and stochastic (MCNP-4C) codes in conjunction with different data libraries (JEF-2.2, ERALIB1, ENDF/B6). Good agreement has been obtained between calculation and experiment in most cases. However, significant discrepancies have been found for the high-threshold reaction rates inside and around the central diffusing lead region, indicating the need for more detailed investigations in this context

Neutronic Studies in Support of ADS: The MUSE Experiments in the MASURCA Facility

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe