Dairy farmer Gilles Chatelain in the middle of his cows in Bassy, Haute-Savoie, September 3, 2022 (AFP / OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE)
A dairy farm passed down for three generations and two brothers, co-operators, who are approaching retirement age without knowing what will happen to their farm… This is a scenario similar to that encountered by a third of French farmers over the age of 60.
The road winds between 95 hectares of cereal plots to the animal building where around sixty cows produce more than 1,000 liters of milk every day. In the village of Bassy, in Haute-Savoie, the two Chatelain brothers, aged 60 and 61, represent the third generation of breeders since 1928.
“As a child, we already helped on the farm, there was the transmission of know-how that we are losing”, regrets the eldest, Gilles Chatelain, president of the Rural Coordination of Savoie, a agricultural union.
If in 1970 France had nearly 1.6 million farmers, there were only 496,000 in 2020, according to the latest census dated from the Ministry of Agriculture. By 2030, some 100,000 farms are expected to change operators.
The two brothers, at the head of a “good installation, economically viable”, do “everything to in turn yield something that is not in debt”, but cattle breeding suffers from a lack of attractiveness.
It is in the beef sector – meat and milk – that the ministry has identified the fewest new installations from 2010 to 2020, while in the next ten years 45% of dairy farmers will be of retirement age.
– “Pipe breaker” –
With only one week of vacation per year, daily schedules ranging from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and working every other weekend, the workload is substantial.
“Which employee would accept it?” Launches Gilles Chatelain, who pays himself a little more than 2,000 euros per month, “a remuneration that is still quite low and inconsistent once reduced to the hours worked”, he says.
However, “we make 150,000 liters more milk than twenty years ago”, but the remuneration does not follow the increase in production, he explains.
Cows in a meadow of the GAEC Champ des Prêles in Bassy, Haute-Savoie, September 3, 2022 (AFP / OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE)
To make matters worse, the cost of animal feed has increased dramatically since the start of the war in Ukraine, when this summer was far too hot and too dry for the grass, which feeds the cattle. in this season grows in the meadows.
“We are in the process of decapitalizing 10% of the herd to have fewer mouths to feed this winter”, continues Gilles Chatelain, pointing to the hay storage space, which should overflow at this time of year.
If he is ready to work “as long as his health follows”, he would not want to exceed 65: retirement would be “ideally at the end of 2023, but no later than 2025”.
– Facilitate transmission –
“There is an installation/transmission service for contacts between sellers and buyers”, on which the two brothers are counting to continue milk production after their departure.
Dairy farmer Gilles Chatelain on his land at GAEC Champ des Prêles in Bassy, Haute-Savoie, September 2, 2022. (AFP/OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE)
Gilles Chatelain, who estimates the value of his farm – building, equipment, livestock included – at almost half a million euros, thinks of remaining the owner of the building which constitutes the bulk of this heritage. He would rent it to future buyers to reduce the cost of their installation while ensuring an income during his retirement.
The challenge of the transfer of farms, a key issue in agricultural policy, must be the subject of extensive consultations by the ministry in the coming months to draw up an orientation law by the first half of 2023.
Four axes stand out: the orientation and training of young farmers, the transmission of farms, the renewal of generations and land, and finally, adaptation to climate change.
© 2022 AFP
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