Enquête sur les pratiques de communication des éleveurs de porcs avec leurs animaux

Summary translation

Farmers daily use methods to build their relationship with their animals, consciously or not. We made a survey with semi-directive interviews, on 14 pig farmers from the western area of France, to describe the variability of communicative practices they use. We asked farmers which positive outputs they found in communicating or interacting with their animals, and how they did it. We also asked them to classify, according to them, the five senses (smell, sight, touch, taste, hearing) from the most to the least used by pigs. All farmers find an interest in interacting with their animals: facilitating their work and/or reassuring the animals. They know their behaviour and mood can impact pig behaviour. Classifying the senses used by pigs was not easy, but organic farmers consider the sense of smell as the most important, while it is hearing for conventional farmers. Recognition of the farmer by pigs seems obvious for the farmers. Some practices proposed in the interview are already used by some farmers (i.e. stroking animals). They would also be ready to use other practices (e.g. speaking, spending more time). Finally, interviewed farmers would be ready to adapt their practices or use new ones if we could show them the positive impact on their animals’ behaviour and their work. Further investigation testing the impact of some proposed practices on pigs and human work will be necessary before advising and training pig farmers.