Water is still rising in the neighboring field this Friday, May 3. Sébastien Mittard’s farm has its toes swimming in the marsh. An alignment of trees suggests the course of the Seugne, a few cables away. Three times this winter, the river came to wash over the agricultural buildings, in the hamlet of Courcion, in Berneuil, south of Saintes. During the December flood, “we could no longer see the stakes in the field”, shows the breeder.
Sébastien Mittard
A photo taken at the same location in December 2023.
Saints facing floods: our file
5.42 meters on November 13, 2023, 6.08 meters on December 17, 2023 and 5.54 meters on Wednesday March 6, 2024. The floods this winter experienced three peaks on the scale of the Palissy bridge and the Saintais had their feet in water. Is climate change to blame? Why was Saintes partly built in the bed of the river? Should we rethink the city? “Sud Ouest” attempts to answer these questions.
Thirty centimeters more, “and there were 80 cows to move. It doesn’t happen like that! We started asking around to see who could take animals. It’s scary when you see the water rising. This year, it went pretty quickly. » Sébastien Mittard has been struggling for three years to build another building which will serve as a refuge in the event of flooding. The file has just been released, “on a pocket of non-floodable land”.
Laurent Jahier/SO
In December, the water was level with the stalls of these Charolais cows.
Sébastien Mittard
The water at the foot of the stable in the heart of the winter 2023 flood.
“Never seen that”
Sébastien Mittard remembers a height of 76 centimeters in the family home during “the flood of the century”, in 1982. But repeated floods between October and April, “even my father, who is 76 years old, did not never experienced that. » And the consequences are serious for the exploitation of 300 hectares of land and 110 of meadows. Distributed between Berneuil, Les Gonds, La Jard and Thénac, around 90% of the meadows remained for months under water from the Seugne or the Charente. “It takes away all the quality of the grass. And in the end, there are none left. »
Laurent Jahier/SO
The silage was seriously damaged by the rising waters. We had to restock.
Sébastien Mittard
The water surrounding the silage.
The cows were of course not able to graze in these submerged fields. “Today, we have around twenty cows outside, compared to 50 to 60 at that time,” assesses the farmer. That’s as many muzzles as need to be fed in the stall. And this, while the flooded lands no longer allow the production of straw and hay. “Usually, we are independent. We end the season with 200 boots in stock,” emphasizes the son, Hugo. This year, for the first time, “we ordered a sowing of straw”.
Spring crops
This missing straw fuels speculation and worries the profession. “We arrive at more than 100 euros per tonne. This is the price of wheat when it is low,” notes Frank Michel, responsible for economic and prospective studies at the regional chamber of agriculture.
The impact of the heavy rains since October goes far beyond the issue of flooding. Throughout Charente-Maritime, we were able to come across land swollen with water. Here and there, wheat sown at the beginning of winter was drowned. “Either it’s not completely ruined, but the yield potential is affected. Either it’s ruined and we have to replant something else,” summarizes Frank Michel. The initial seed which yielded nothing remains a dead loss of around 150 euros per hectare.
Xavier Léoty/SO
Fields where water comes out, the image was visible everywhere in Charente-Maritime this winter.
Tractors often simply could not risk their wheels in the fields. All this is reflected in the statistics. “In Charente-Maritime, we went from 88,700 hectares of wheat in 2022 to 75,000 in 2023, or 15% less winter wheat. The barley surface area lost 19%, going from 19,800 to 16,000 hectares. » Farmers are switching to spring crops, sunflowers or corn.
Corn that often cannot do without irrigation. Even if water is abundant today, the nature of the soil in our region does not necessarily retain it, and we are not safe from a new period of drought, according to Frank Michel. This gives fodder to supporters of replacement reserves, who advocated storing water in basins at the height of floods this winter.
The cows catch a cold
Sébastien Mittard hopes to at least do well in this regard. “We pump, but less and less. And we try to diversify cultures. » He will also grow a little more corn, sunflower, rapeseed and also six hectares of soya, “for rotation and CAP points”.
Laurent Jahier/SO
The Mittard family built a raised building to store straw and hay.
He must digest other repercussions. Trees uprooted which cause damage and ice jams. The rats, badgers, foxes and wild boars who come to visit the farm, repelled by the water, with diseases in their coats. Cows with colds… “Lung diseases are mind-blowing… In 2021, we lost six calves at 1,300 euros apiece like that. »
Laurent Jahier/SO
“We cannot imagine the marsh without animals. My sons are the fifth generation,” notes Sébastien Mittard.
“We don’t know where we’re going but we’re going there. These remain exceptional years”
The family farm has grown to 120 Charolais cows, because there are two sons to take over. “We don’t know where we’re going but we’re going there. These remain exceptional years,” the farmer wants to believe, although he is well aware that climate change is shaking up habits. The main thing is there, around: “I was born in the swamp. I love it, my swamp. »
Philippe Ménard/SO
Just outside Saintes, near the village of Saint-Sorlin, crops were lost in the floods.
