Mitigating The Effects Of Climate Change In The Cattle Industry: The Climalait And Climaviande Approaches

Climate change is impacting forage systems, and cattle farmers are having to adapt. However, farmers tend to be more concerned about extreme events, such as drought, but remain largely unfamiliar with the gradual effects of climate change. As a result, adaptation measures generally involve ensuring forage supply as part of an overall attempt to increase self-sufficiency. The best way to identify appropriate adaptation measures is to explore how future climatic conditions will affect agronomic and zootechnical parameters and their seasonal variation among years. The Climalait and Climaviande projects have sought to provide this information as well as new tools that can be incorporated into farming systems. A board game developed as part of these projects allows farmers to formulate adaptation measures and modifications that are suitable to their local context.