The summer of 2022 has been historic. The heat waves and the drought that have hit France have not spared the Marne, nor its breeders. They are about 500 in the department and all draw a summer report “complicated”, according to the livestock manager of the FDSEA de la Marne. A major conference on the place of agriculture in the economy is also organized this Thursday at the Foire de Chalons.
“With the drought that started at the beginning of July, the growth of grass was enormously limited. Pastures were downright burned”, explains Laurent Champenois, who ensures that “many breeders have been forced to feed the animals with pasture from the beginning of August, or even the end of July.” Therefore, they had to type in their stocks, which were intended to feed the animals from the months of November or December.
A shortage of hay, and no helpers
Laurent Champenois fears that breeders will end up being confronted with a fodder deficit by the end of the winter season, which will end in April 2023. To cope with this shortage of hay, he notes a “solidarity between cereal growers and breeders on the territory”. On the other hand, he assures us that Marne breeders have no “no financial support for the department.”
Together with the Chamber of Agriculture and the Young Farmers, the Marne FDSEA will soon “Officialize a request for recognition in a state of agricultural calamities, to possibly have an envelope to distribute to the breeders of the department.” Laurent Champenois hopes that each breeder will be able to touch between 3,000 and 4,000 euros in aid. He would also like to be able build fodder storage during the years of abundance, and to be able to use them during the years of deficit.
Higher prices for consumers are necessary for “the survival of the agricultural profession”
Between avian flu, the war in Ukraine, soaring grain prices and now energy prices, poultry professionals are saying that buying chicken or turkey will soon cost consumers much more. The same for milk. For Laurent Champenois, there is no other solution than to increase prices.
“The survival of the agricultural profession is at stake. Any company that sees its workload evolve must naturally market its product at the level of its production cost”, explains the head of the FDSEA in the Marne. Without a change in product prices, he is convinced, “there will be, at some point, a disappearance of breeders.”