Throughout the month of March and a little beyond, the Central region experienced exceptional amounts of rain, to the great dismay of farmers: the Chinon winegrowers of the Val de Vienne were flooded. And cereal growers in Loir-et-Cher have given up on their spring sowing: “The equivalent of a month of rain sometimes fell in less than 24 hours in the South-West of Indre. This explains these major and rapid floods in addition to the soils saturated with water”we emphasize among the volunteers of the Météo Center association, at the 90 stations spread across the 6 departments.
At the Guilbardière organic farm, in Monthou-sur-Bièvre (Loir-et-Cher), we are disillusioned. The weather station in the neighboring town of Chailles measured 98.2 mm of rain in March, compared to 21.6 in March 2022 or 15 mm in March 2012. “If our soil had been sandy, we would not have had a problem with water infiltrating… but it is clayey and retains a lot of water. Because it was already raining a lot at that time, we were not able to do our winter sowing. We therefore embarked on spring sowing, with specific durum wheat varieties », says Bertrand Monnier, one of the four operators. But the weather was the worst. “With all this rain, we managed to sow barely fifteen of our thirty hectares, in not great conditions and now it is too late to finish”.
To hope to get by, Mr. Monnier decided to make the most of his upcoming weak harvest. “This means that we are not going to honor everyone, especially the cooperative. Fortunately, they won’t give us a penalty. It must be said that with the organic crisis, they already have a year’s stock of raw wheat”. Mr. Monnier therefore intends to transform all of his wheat into flour, which he will use to make pasta or which he will distribute to organic bakeries in the sector.
Economic uncertainty
On the edge of Sologne, Florian Perrin has been a grain farmer in Saint-Laurent-Nouan for four generations. The two cooling towers of the EDF power station overlook its fields. “The rains have been much too heavy in recent days. The water has stagnated in certain places on the plots where I sowed this fall but the impact is moderate. On my meadows, however, I still have to delay putting my cows out to grass. Which is less rich when it advances in stage and the cows will tend to waste the very tall grass. As I keep them in buildings, my stock of hay is diminishing visibly.” Florian Perrin still has to sow 30 hectares of corn. “But the fields would first have to dry out, not to mention the diseases that spread on the cereals without us being able to intervene,” says Mr. Perrin, who deals with the minimum. The Beauce plain, on the other bank of the Loire, is distinguished by its vast agricultural areas, mainly cereals and oilseeds. At the moment, the rapeseed is submerged there but in flower: it is therefore too early to know if it will properly produce seeds.
You have 17.21% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.