Will crowdfunding save Jean-François Goumain’s calves, cows and heifers from the slaughterhouse? This dairy farmer from Anjouin (Indre) wants to believe it: if the online pot “Save my cows” that he launched six months ago reached a substantial sum, he will ask the judicial court of Châteauroux to cancel the liquidation procedure that the latter pronounced against him in May.
The case is not won, far from it. The peasant belongs to this category of farmers literally “crushed” by arrears and charges. All of its debts amount to 450,000 euros. He has until the end of the year to reimburse them, otherwise he will see his farm auctioned off – the animals along with it.
How can we get there? In the kitchen of the farm where he was born 57 years ago, the man scrolls through three decades of hazardous choices, unhappy episodes and damaging encounters which, accumulated, precipitated his descent into hell. The story is confused, all in digressions; it is about a conversion to organic which turned out to be too expensive, of a salesman of animal feed who gave him back a powder of perlimpinpin, of unfavorable weather conditions, of a resigning partner after a stroke, a purchase price of milk that definitely does not take off, countless bank loans …
“Like Obelix fell into the magic potion when he was little, I fell into a basin, but a basin of shit”, says Jean-François
“Like Obelix who fell into the magic potion when he was little, I fell into a basin, but a basin of shit”, he says in front of a homemade head cheese. Jean-François Goumain settled in 1987 following his father who had himself installed following his. Her parents, aged 86 and 95, still live in part of the family farmhouse. Single without children, he lives alone with his dog Nora. And his “Girls”, as he calls them: 135 prim’hosltein and montbéliardes, all wearing a nickname, like the late Pensée which gave its name to the farm, for “Thank her for producing 10,000 liters of milk in one year”.
Food self-sufficiency
The good times. Since 2018 and the first reorganization proceedings initiated against him, his herd has suffered greatly from the situation. Classic gear: the lack of cash no longer making it possible to feed or care for the animals correctly, their output decreases as a result; debts accumulate as much, etc. The brand “C’est qui le patron”, which pays farmers the fair value of their work, ended up withdrawing it from its supplies, because of “Starving cows”, notably.
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