Les éleveurs de bovins et la politique de l'élevage

Cattle-breeders and cattle-breeding policy Results of an opinion poll on state aids - The many forms of aid to cattle-breeding granted over the past ten years seem incoherent to most of the farmers questioned in March 1974 during an opinion poll carried out on 1600 beef producers in 8 regions. More than half the funds granted by the Minister of Agriculture for meat production went towards the modernisation of farms (loans and subsidies for farm buildings) whereas the commercial organization of producers was reinforced only from 1973 onwards. The present crisis in the meat market ask us several questions : will Europe and France be exporters in the future ? How can a balance be reached between national needs and our presence on world markets ? To justify a policy of intensification and of investment in farm businesses the latter must be sure of selling. Should it be made comparisons for state and to be granted only to production groups to encourage breeders to join this system as the state and farmer's organization demand ? A great many breeders particularly those who practise a policy of growth by extension with autonomous and not very hazardous production systems oppose this generalized view of organisation. Similarly many consider the present aid unjust, especially as they favour large scale farms (subsidies are proportional to the number of cattle). However even those who do not belong to production groups think that this system can give the breeders more security... There is mass demand for a state organization of the market, like the « Office des céréales ». The additional importance given to the ONIBEV is appreciated. Present aid to caWe-breeding has been selective as in the end it seems to have been a policy of «r the state helps those who help themselves ». 60 % of the farmers increased the area of their farms on their made use of the breeding-building aid. A minority (15 %) have not tried to take advantage of it. The means at their disposal are sufficient. Finally a quarter (24 %) are too poor to be able to get off the ground by means of State aid. In the future, the aims of the breeding policy should be better defined and it should be more efficient to enable those who are able to change and improve their methods. It should also be less injust and enable the inequalities that, at present, inevitably increase with growth, to be corrected.