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Wed 23 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 24 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
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    16.30 - 17.30

Fri 25 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 26 April
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    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

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Wednesday 23 April 2014 11.00 - 13.00
V-2 RUR02 Animal Husbandry in the 19th and 20th Centuries: Production, Importance and Conceptualization in Belgium, Scandinavia and the UK
Hörsaal 48 second floor
Network: Rural Chair: Abigail Woods
Organizer: Carin Martiin Discussant: Abigail Woods
Maren Jonasson : Colliding Rationalities, Merging Realities: the 'Improvement' of Animal Husbandry in Finland as Depicted at Agricultural Meetings and Exhibitions 1840s to 1930s
The paper takes its point of departure in agricultural exhibitions and meetings in Finland that took place there during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The emphasis is on farm animals and how the opinions and ideas that were launched at the exhibitions and meetings then were distributed, conceptualized and ... (Show more)
The paper takes its point of departure in agricultural exhibitions and meetings in Finland that took place there during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The emphasis is on farm animals and how the opinions and ideas that were launched at the exhibitions and meetings then were distributed, conceptualized and implemented. The study reveals fairly large gaps between the fancy foreign ideas that were brought forward at these events, and the harsh reality of the Finnish peasantry. Some of the foreign ideas were however implemented by owners of large estates and this could mean increased gaps between different kinds of farming. The source material about agricultural exhibitions and meetings in Finland is very rich and will be considered from various perspectives, such as class, gender and geographic location. Moreover the paper sheds light on farmers’ rationality and on distribution of innovations and information. The discussed differences among other things could contribute to more pronounced differences as regards systems of milk production, which has similarities with co-existing parallel systems in Sweden, to which some comparative outlooks will be made. (Show less)

Carin Martiin : Milk Production in Sweden from the 1860s to 1960s: Hundred Years of Different Parallel Production Systems
This paper deals with Swedish cattle husbandry and milk production, and how this was transformed when Sweden was industrialized and urbanized. The study provides a nuanced picture of a drawn-out and relatively heterogeneous process of commercialization and altered methods of production, contrary to more common understanding of a relatively rapid ... (Show more)
This paper deals with Swedish cattle husbandry and milk production, and how this was transformed when Sweden was industrialized and urbanized. The study provides a nuanced picture of a drawn-out and relatively heterogeneous process of commercialization and altered methods of production, contrary to more common understanding of a relatively rapid and homogeneous process.

Before the onset of large-scale urbanization in the 1860s, regular sale of milk had long been a limited business for larger herds close to towns, whereas a majority of the cattle primarily were intended for use in kind, plus some occasional sale of butter and cheese. The combination of urbanization, international trade and the building of railways and otherwise improved communications that took place during the second half of the nineteenth century did however open for increased commercialization of dairying. However, we cannot speak about a general wave of keen dairy suppliers, such as in Denmark in the 1880s, but rather have to deal with changes that were drawn-out in time, and that it differed between different herd sizes, regionally, locally and individually.

Early efforts were made by the rural upper classes, and some entrepreneurial individuals at smaller farms but it would take more than half a century until a majority of all herds were dairy suppliers, and another half century before it is relevant to talk about a fully commercialized dairy sector. By then many of the small holdings had however been given up, before having ever been parts of the commercialization of dairying.

Among the reasons for this long process of change were poor communications. Especially the northern inlands, but also other remote regions, suffered from lack of roads. A second constraint to commercialization was the small size of many herds. With only one or two cows it was difficult to manage a continuous surplus for sale. Third, far from all animals were sufficiently fed and thus yielded little, and could have long dry periods. Fourth, one finds substantial in-kind consumption of milk, for pancakes, porridge etcetera. Fifth, pigs and calves could be fed with large amounts, such as tens of litres per day to a fattening a calf. Seasonal surpluses of fresh milk could thus be utilized at the holding. Some small holdings never became dairy suppliers. Many of these holdings were given up by the mid twentieth century, or even later. Meanwhile, rural Sweden was a mixture of output driven commercial systems, intermediate but successively increasingly commercial forms, and low input based systems at holdings with cattle for use in kind. Along with these co-existing parallel systems with sale or not, we can also distinguish important differences in views on animals and modernity, and in methods of production. (Show less)

Karen Sayer : Perceptions of Change and the Emergence of Rural 'Modernity' in Britain 1900-2001
The proposed paper seeks to consider the rise of new technologies and practices as they relate to British agriculture in the period 1900-2001, and to address the ways in which these were received. That is, how they were perceived by farmers and others involved in agriculture, and also by the ... (Show more)
The proposed paper seeks to consider the rise of new technologies and practices as they relate to British agriculture in the period 1900-2001, and to address the ways in which these were received. That is, how they were perceived by farmers and others involved in agriculture, and also by the non-farming public. Agricultural historians have recently begun to consider the full range of structural and social changes that took place in British agriculture during the twentieth century. However, much of the work to date concentrates on the inter- and immediate post-war period, or on the processes of technical change and business. But, it is essential to map the wider socio-cultural and perceptual histories relating to these changes, and their reception by urban audiences, if we are to deepen our understanding of the impact of intensification and mass production within the British countryside in the twentieth century.
For instance, whereas even the most dedicated of Victorian agriculturalists initially employed close scientific observation of their animals to ‘improve’ agricultural practice, and therefore profitability, yet believed that nature was ultimately immutable, the continued use of scientific observation gradually shifted within agriculture into seeing animal nature as entirely malleable. After the Second World War, a conviction emerged, alongside the policy that food production be increased, that the animal really could become part of the machinery/technology of agricultural production. However, agriculture, or at least the most progressive end of it, did not carry its public with it, and the understanding of animal nature that emerged within commercial farming and intensification was often at variance with the public perception of it. Indeed, animal intensification seems to have been a placeholder for wider anxieties about modernity in Britain from the 1960s.
Focusing in particular on the origins and development of the conceptualization of the animal body as a ‘technological’ resource within modern British agriculture, and the managed spaces of the farm, the paper aims to address the changing understanding, among both agriculturalists and the public, of ‘modernity’ in farming. The proposed work builds on a series of publications that address changing perceptions of ‘modernity’ as they relate to rural life, and in particular reactions to and the extent of intensification of farming in the British countryside. and will address the development of farming as it relates to rural infrastructure and other agricultural processes, and also extend the range of assessment to c. 2001. (Show less)

Yves Segers : The Influence of World War I on Livestock Improvement in Belgium, 1910-1920s
The paper analyses the impact of the First World War on livestock and breeding practices in Belgium. It argues that the war itself and the immediate post-war period gave an important stimulus to the introduction and diffusion of new scientific insights regarding livestock improvement. Before the war the appearance of ... (Show more)
The paper analyses the impact of the First World War on livestock and breeding practices in Belgium. It argues that the war itself and the immediate post-war period gave an important stimulus to the introduction and diffusion of new scientific insights regarding livestock improvement. Before the war the appearance of animals (the so-called “extérieur”) received most of the attention from breeders and farmers. Yields, product quality or fat percentage were hardly registered and calculated, and thus of minor importance in daily practices. But this changed after WWI. During the war the size of Belgian livestock diminished profoundly, because animals were slaughtered (due to a lack of animal feed) and because tens of thousands of animals were claimed by the German occupier. After the war, the Belgian government, supported by the farmers’ organizations, set up a policy to reconstruct livestock numbers and to improve the quality, following the ideas of the Leuven professor Leopold Frateur. Horses and cattle were bought in Great Britain and in The Netherlands (among other countries) to breed with, and to improve the (productive) quality of Belgian livestock. Simultaneously the Belgian government started with the organization of a knowledge network to inform farmers about the best breeds and techniques, and to stimulate the diffusion of modern knowledge regarding livestock improvement via the organization of exhibitions, competitions, breeding societies, etc. According to contemporaries by 1922 Belgian livestock already equalled the quality of the pre-war years (although it was not until the 1930s that the number of animals equalled that of the pre-war period.) (Show less)



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