Le financement de l'élevage bovin et porcin

Financing of cattle-and-pig-breeding - Beef and pork make up about 45 % of the total French agricultural output, provided by a considerable number of animals - more than twenty one million cattle and ten million pigs. Herds of this size require a means of financing adapted to them if the community at large is not to be obliged to grant stock-breeding permanent support and the breeders forced to become wealthier. Financing the breeding stock the value of which remains constant in real terms by means of loans makes the breeders unable to avoid saving. The degree of self financing that is necessary increases with the development of the structures of production. This article analyses the consequences of the present method of financing - the financial behaviour of breeders who are forced to save, and the need to find a use for these savings in agriculture, savings that are in fact greater than what is to be invested because of the renewed influx of funds made available for the existing assets when the business changes hands. Is there a form of financing adapted to the needs of cattle - and pig - breeding, given the existence of specialized farms and the prospects for the future ? A few of the administrative and socio-economic aspects of such a form of financing are presented. What, in the end, conditions the methods of financing, is a politicol choice : that of the production system.