Change of forage practices and technical dialogues among beef cattle farmers in Burgundy

The material world in which farmers develop their production influences their practices. However, the social environment also acts on the way farmers know and think about these practices. In this social environment, the farmers can exchange information and debate technical points of view with each other as well as with a technical consultant to confirm or change their ways of working. We investigated twenty farmers in Burgundy in order to describe how the interactive dialogues in their social network influenced the way they brought about changes in the field of forage. Three positions were identified: a practical position (what farmers say on their practices in relation to the others), a social position (the position in the social network made up of all the farmers being interviewed) and a geographical position (the physical position in a geographical space). Coherence appeared between these three positions and showed that the way farmers choose and think of the practices, in the field of forage, could be explained geographically and socially. This was particularly true when we looked at the spreading use of wrapping; we noticed the role of some farmers is determined according to their position in the social network