Julien Coléou left us suddenly on August 6, 2003. He was one of the most original personalities of the French animal productions, and a major figure of the past 50 years at the Institut National Agronomique.
Born on October 17, 1926 at Plouguer (Brittany) in a large peasant family, he spent his childhood in Plévin, in the heart of Breton-speaking Brittany. After graduating as an Agronomist in 1951, he went on studying at the ENSSAA, and then at the Faculté des Sciences in Paris. His spent his career working in the field of animal science at the Institut National Agronomique (INA) from 1953 to 1995. He became Professor in 1964, and Emeritus professor in 1995.
Julien's career path is atypical. Trained in the prestigious team of Professor Leroy, he quickly started pursuing more personal endeavours, exploring ways that were scarcely known at the time, and contributing in a decisive fashion to the modernisation of animal productions.
His works dealt with the "forage tools", including grains and byproducts, their preservation and the related diets and production results. He started a close and fruitful collaboration with ITCF (Institute for cereals and forages) and created its department of applied research in animal productions. He played a leading role in the emergence and development of bull calf production, in the increasing use of maize for animal feeding and in the rise of artificial dehydration of forages. In 1970, he revived the field of horse studies, and from the 1980s he contributed to the development of aquaculture.
In the meantime, he developed long-term activities in Southern countries: first in Morocco in the 1960s, and later in Algeria where his team comprised up to 30 engineers. At the end of his career, his resume included 183 missions in 33 foreign countries.
At INA, he created a course on the “economy and organisation of productions” that did not exist in other schools of agricultural engineering. In the 1960s, this course already talked about “organised groups in animal productions”, well before the emergence of the concept of “sector” ("filière" in French). His teachings were solidly grounded in actual work practices, and paid closed attention to the players and to market constraints, including consumption. Thanks to his many contacts with private companies, he always held an international perspective. In 1968, he took a leading role in the modernising of pedagogy that had such a lasting effect for the INA.
He stood out as a “interface man", able to navigate between education, enterprises, the professional world and development. His views on the main challenges of the time – environment, risk issues, the public image of animal productions – remain very original.
He was very attentive to students and former students. He contributed to the education of 7000 engineers, including about one thousands animal production specialists. He directed about 50 PhDs. His educational project was at the core of his manyfold activities.
To support them, he created the CEREOPA association, and ERA, a company that was the frame of his work in Southern countries. He was the president of the Department of Animal Sciences for 15 years, and of the Association Française de Zootechnie (AFZ) from 1985 to 1992. He served on several Scientific Boards and at the CIIAA during more that 20 years. He was a member of the Academy of Agriculture.
His collaborators and colleagues will remind him as an example for his demanding ambition for the Institute he worked in, and for his strong commitment to his students. They will miss his exceptional charisma and human qualities.
In the name of Julien’s collaborators,
Jean Lossouarn
The Bourse Julien Coléou, of the Fondation Jean-Pierre et Marie-Thérèse Le Roch - Les Mousquetaires, is dedicated to his memory.
