this breeder from the Châteaubriant region testifies

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“People are not fooled.” Breeder in Moisdon-la-Rivière (Loire-Atlantique), Mickaël Huneau, president of the cantons of Châteaubriant Derval within of the National Federation of Farmers' Unions of Loire-Atlantique (FNSEA 44) and coordinator of the local farmer mobilization movement which began Monday November 18, 2024is firmly awaiting concrete measures.

Loire-Atlantique: “it’s not over”

Mickaël Huneau is a breeder at Moisdon-la-Rivière (Loire-Atlantique) in dairy production, president of the cantons of Châteaubriant Derval within of the National Federation of Farmers' Unions of Loire-Atlantique (FNSEA 44) and local spokesperson for the national farmer mobilization movement.

“Mercosur is one more thing added to our constraints that we have already had for years and years. »

The first evening of the mobilization of Monday November 18, 2024at the Ferrière de Châteaubriant roundabout, he and around thirty farmers lit a fire of anger. “Unfortunately, demonstrations like this have been going on for a very long time and it’s not over. »

“A catastrophic year”

In the dairy sector, it is a little better but it remains fragile. It is more for cereal farmers that the situation is critical. We had a catastrophic year. People know it today, they are not fooled.

Breeder in milk productionhe also cultivates cereals. If farmers who have different production activities, suffer a little less from this crisisfor those who are only cereal growers or only breeders, the year 2025 promises to be particularly difficult.

Blame it on the climate

“We have had a very complicated year in terms of climate, with record rainfall like never before. It’s been a long time since we’ve experienced such difficult conditions in the fields,” he says.

From one year to the next, weather conditions are unpredictable and the seasonality that allows harvests is disrupted.

A harvest is a year's work of a crop, with the sowings made last year, for this year's harvests. This summer we had terrible weather. Wheat, for example, is a cereal that must have its climatic changes like the others, that is to say have a cold enough winter, to kill all the parasites and a mild spring to have at harvest time, a healthy plant and good to harvest.

This summer neither quality nor quantity were not there for the last harvests.

The livestock sector also in difficulty

The farmer specifies that the beef industry is also under attack. “My fellow farmer Isabelle, who is in the meat farming business, could tell you that too. In our business it's quite a long time. For a meat animal to be profitable, it takes more than two and a half years. It's cash to advance, we advance money all the time, for milk it's the same, but this year it's becoming difficult. »

With more than half of the crops lost for growers this year and high taxes due to the previous year which was generousit will be difficult to see 2025 coming.

“For the moment we are waiting, there are measures which have partially been announced at the level of the cash loan, but nothing concrete. The same goes for controls on livestock farms, there have certainly been reductions, but in concrete terms, we have not seen fewer controls,” he says.

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