lack of fodder, breeders forced to sell their animals

A ground roasted by the sun since the beginning of July, and a meadow transformed into a field of straw: inedible for the cows of François Garrivier, breeder in the Loire. “Beasts no longer derive any profit from the prairie”, he laments. He has already started his stocks of winter fodder, and buying it would be very expensive, because the drought has tripled prices. After selling five cows, he plans to sell five more. Selling your animals means less expenses in the coming weeks, and an immediate cash flow.

François Garrivier’s situation is far from isolated. If France has the first European livestock, 17 million animals for meat and milk, the number has been declining for years. Between the farms not finding a buyer, and a profession of breeder that no longer allows a decent living, the herd has lost 650,000 cows in five years, and could lose a million more by 2030. According to Cédric Mandin , general secretary of the National Bovine Federation, it is not excluded that France runs out of red meat.