Internship : Dynamic modeling of cattle herds and simulation of farming practices

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INRAE presentation

The French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) is a major player in research and innovation. It is a community of 12,000 people with 272 research, experimental research, and support units located in 18 regional centres throughout France. Internationally, INRAE is among the top research organisations in the agricultural and food sciences, plant and animal sciences, as well as in ecology and environmental science. It is the world’s leading research organisation specialising in agriculture, food and the environment. INRAE’s goal is to be a key player in the transitions necessary to address major global challenges. Faced with a growing world population, climate change, resource scarcity, and declining biodiversity, the Institute has a major role to play in building solutions and supporting the necessary acceleration of agricultural, food and environmental transitions.

Work environment, missions and activities

You will work in the Herbivores joint research unit (UMR). The mission of this unit is to produce, integrate and disseminate knowledge, and share expertise to design multi-performing herbivore farming systems that meet the challenges of global change (environmental, socio-economic and digital transition). The unit has 118 permanent staff and welcomes 70 non-permanent staff each year. It is organized into 4 research teams, a management team and a support team.

You will join the STARQ team (Livestock Systems, Agroecological Transition, Resilience, and Product Quality). You will also interact with researchers from the ASSET, UREP, and GABI units of INRAE.

The project you will be involved in, titled OPTI-HERD (“Which livestock farming practices help cattle herds become more resilient and efficient while limiting greenhouse gas and nitrogen emissions in the face of environmental disturbances? A modeling approach.”), is funded by the CLIMAE Metaprogram (2026–2027). Its objective is to develop an interdisciplinary modeling tool to identify and evaluate agroecological practices likely to both improve herd resilience to environmental shocks and significantly reduce carbon and nitrogen emissions.

Resulting from collaboration between experts in genetics, animal science, economics, soil, and environmental sciences, OPTI-HERD aims to produce knowledge and operational tools to support stakeholders in transitioning to more sustainable and better-adapted livestock farming systems that address current and future challenges.

Your main mission will be to model the performance and GHG emissions of dairy and beef cattle herds using a dynamic approach based on population dynamics theory. Initially, an existing modeling tool from the literature—such as Godde et al. (2019), PaSim, SEBIEN (Jouven and Baumont, 2008), or another—will be selected, then adapted and enriched to meet the project’s objectives.

You will be specifically responsible for:

1. Critically reviewing the literature to identify relevant existing models for the project and conducting a comparison of their strengths and limitations;
2. Adapting and expanding the selected model through coding exercises, then calibrating it using available datasets;
3. Performing a sensitivity analysis of the model.

Bibliographies

Godde, C., Dizyee, K., Ash, A., Thornton, P., Sloat, L., Roura, E., Henderson, B., Herrero, M., 2019. Climate change and variability impacts on grazing herds: Insights from a system dynamics approach for semi-arid Australian rangelands. Global Change Biology 25, 3091–3109. doi:10.1111/gcb.14669

Jouven, M., Baumont, R., 2008. Simulating grassland utilization in beef suckler systems to investigate the trade-offs between production and floristic diversity. Agricultural Systems 96, 260–272. doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2007.10.001

Working within a multidisciplinary team, mainly involves computer-based tasks, with opportunities to visit experimental beef and dairy cattle facilities.

Training and skills

Recommended training: Engineering or university program in animal production, agronomy, or environmental science.

Desired knowledge: Livestock systems, environment, and cattle production (beef or dairy), and knowledge of the concepts of resilience, adaptation, and mitigation.

Appreciated experience: Basic mecanistic modeling, data analysis, literature review, R software.

Skills: team work, autonomy.

INRAE's life quality

By joining our teams, you benefit from (depending on the type of contract and its duration):

- 2.5 days of leave per month worked;
- parenting support: CESU childcare, leisure services;
- skills development systems: training, career advise;
- social support: advice and listening, social assistance and loans;
- holiday and leisure services: holiday vouchers, accommodation at preferential rates;
- sports and cultural activities;
- collective catering.

The site Theix located in Saint-Genès-Champanelle is served by two shuttle buses for INRAE staff, which link the site to the Clermont-Ferrand agglomeration in the morning and evening, and by a transport-on-demand service. It also has parking facilities and services for cyclists.

How to apply

I send my CV and my motivation letter