Nitrogen, land and water inputs in changing cattle farming systems : a historical comparison for France, 19th-21st centuries

International audienceThis paper provides an original account of the long-term regional metabolism in relation to the cattle rearing in western France starting by the precise formulation of animal diets at three key dates of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. We established links between the demand in fodder of the meat and dairy sectors and the necessary inputs of nitrogen, water and land as well as the land cover changes occurring on the affected local and remote cattle acreage. The average agricultural productivity for fodder supply is estimated at about 50 kg N/ha in the mid-19th, 54 kg N/ha in the early 20th and 150 kg N/ha at the turning of the 21st century. Jointly for the dairy and meat productions, the potential efficiency in the conversion of the vegetal into animal protein more than doubled over the studied period, passing from less than 9% in the 19th to 20% in the 21st century. The current cattle sector is sustained for about 25% by land situated beyond the regional frontiers and uses water at intensities that approach or exceed the availability of renewable water. The nitrogen pollution is expressed in terms of the Net Anthropogenic Nitrogen Inputs (NANI) and, by comparison to the N recovered in products, is used to define the N-Environmental Efficiency of the farming. We discuss the historical succession of the factors that contributed to the growth of the meat and milk production and make a comparison of the impacts and policy between the local and distant resources