The rotation is the division of the grounds of a Farm in distinct parts, called black and white plates or , devoted each one to a culture given during one farming season. In each plate, the cultures can vary from one year (even of a season) to another: it is the farming succession or rotation, which is a different concept. The rotation is the geographical diversity of the cultures at a given time, rotation is the succession of the cultures on the same piece with the wire of time.

The rotation of a Farm results from various constraints, as well technical as economic, and seeks to optimize the total result. The criteria economic to take into account are the market, the selling price, the investments to be implemented, possibly limits of fixing of quotas for the regulated cultures or the subsidies. The technical factors, in the broad sense, include the rules of Rotation of crops, the organization of work, the availability of the material, as well as the ecological factors (ground, climate, etc). Finally the farmer must take into account the human means, in quantity, qualification and know-how.

Example

A Agriculteur exploits ten Parcelle S; three to cultivate corn, five to cultivate corn, two to cultivate tournesol.
It thus has three plates: a plate of Corn, a plate of Corn, a plate of Sunflower.

One can by extension speech of rotation to the level of a commune or an area.

Historic insight

Already with the the Middle Ages, the practices of rotation were made different manners according to the areas.

The North of France, country of open fields (Openfield), practiced the Three-year rotation, at the origin, especially for the regions more in north, in an obligatory way. The soil of the villages was cut out into three Sole S, on which the Agriculteur S tenant S could cultivate only what was envisaged by the village community. Household heads deciding of the cultivation methods between them. On the plate in fallow, i.e. without culture, the village could practice the common grazing land. The other plates were: a corn plate of winter, a plate of cereal of spring (Barley, oats) or of leguminous.

This type of rotation, with the increase in Population, entered a Vicious circle. All the grounds being cultivated, it was difficult to increase the food production, except cutting down on the meadows, and thus decreasing the Cheptel. This reduction in the Troupeau X involved a reduction in the manure , and thus an impoverishment of the grounds, already very requested. This impoverishment of the grounds, caused by the lack of manure, involved a fall of the outputs in grains and fodder, which prevented from developing the livestock, and thus limited the contribution in manure to the cultivated grounds, etc It was especially the wrong to be subjected to too collective habits to the taste of the agricultural middle-class represented by the Physiocrate S.

Gradually, as from the 16th century, the plate in fallow accepted the culture of a fodder Légumineuse . In 1770, a royal edict allowing the Enclosure, (Edict of fence) and thus calling into question these cultivation methods, generated important disorders. With the French revolution, the practice had already become more individualistic.

In the South of France, scrap-metal country, and the Mediterranean world, the biennial Assolement was privileged. The habit resulting from the Roman law, and the climatic constraints (impossible culture of cereals of spring), work with the Araire instead of the plow make that the biennial rotation was well adapted to this medium.

The grounds of Parcours (Saltus) constituted a very important element of the rural soils, since the Transferts of fertility were made these grounds towards the cultivated grounds.

The 17th century, the law of the fences ( Enclosure Act ), allowed for the first time, in England, with rich person landowners to enclose their property to exclude the animals from them from other poorer people. The poor became even poorer and the richer rich person. Some claim that improved the total performances of the agricultural system of production.

Comparison of the rotations

Classically, the Three-year rotation is regarded as superior with the biennial one. However, F. Sigaut showed that their productivity was close, even equalizes.
  • In the case of the triennial one, one obtains an output X of cereal of winter, then cereal X/2 of spring in second year, either 1,5 X in 3 years or the equivalent of three harvests in six years. Moreover, the ground carries cultures during 28 months in six years.
  • In the case of the biennial one, one obtains an output X of cereal of winter every two years, that is to say three harvests in six years. The ground carries cultures for 27 months in six years.

Nevertheless, by varying a little the cultures and the practices, the three-year rotation is less sensitive to the climatic risks, and makes it possible to better distribute work over the year.

Vocabulary

  • the etymology of fallow is unknown. In Latin: vervactum
  • In Lorraine, the fallow names " versaine ", the plate of corn is the " Wayne " , that of cereals of spring is the " spring wheat ".

See too

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