Lastly, flushing is mainly used on ewe farms. Estrus detection is performed only on dairy flocks for goats and ewes. By contrast, the male effect is mentioned for goat and sheep farms. PDO specifications do not allow the use of hormonal treatment and melatonin, which are consequently solely used under conventional farming. Flushing is mainly performed on sheep farms. The light-based treatments, the use of melatonin and long lactations which induce out-of-season breeding are only met on goat farms. We then evaluated the acceptability of the actors for two innovative tools related to reproduction management on farms: the use of pheromones involved in the male effect (an alternative to hormonal treatment for induction and synchronization of ewe oestrus) and the automated electronic oestrus detection (to optimize the mating moment for AI or natural service). We established the current state of reproduction management practices implemented in the six French main production areas from surveys of 97 farm stakeholders and 298 sheep and goat breeders under both conventional and organic farming. The current socio-economic context incites both to develop alternatives to hormonal treatment for the induction and synchronization of oestrus for conventional farms and to propose new perspectives for organic farms. A major concern for small ruminant productions is to control the seasonality of reproduction.
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