How stakeholders see pig farms with a future ?

For 10 years, unlike other competitors, the French pig production stagnates and its farms are struggling to restructure. A status in 2006 showed the great age of pig buildings which hinders the expression of genetic and technical progress. The evolution of performances, regulations, technologies and pig producers forces pig farms to urgent adaptations in order to stay technically in the race and to encourage vocations.This article reflects the vision of the stakeholders, gathered during interviews in 2007, of what the pig farms will be in 10-15 years. Three archetypes are identified for three main logical: to exploit the complementarity between pigs and cultures, to access to economies of scale and to optimise performance to crush high fixed costs (wages, modern buildings), to delegate sows breeding. Other models for other logical will still remain, at least for a while, contributing to the maintain of pig production: fattening within mixed farming to make use of available labour, association of pig and milk production to diversify income sources…Forces and brakes to the restructuring of pig farms identified by stakeholders highlight the technical and political actions to drive in order to give French pig production a future and prospects. As it proposes pig farm models that combine profitability and respect of society and environment demands, the study in which this survey was included aims to offer the industry the means to argue its choices, to facilitate consensus on models to advocate and to lead changes.