On a ridge in the Landes de Lanvaux, in Saint-Gravé, the life of the Bréhon Organic Ferme resumed its course. Three hundred Noirans laying hens have returned to the mobile hen house since June 3, around fifty Rennes cuckoo clocks offered by breeders are housed in a second shelter, a few goats, cows and calves ecograze in a very green plot. In the vegetable garden, vegetables, flowers and aromatic plants…
300 healthy hens tested the day before by a veterinarian
Five months ago, on April 8, Myriam and Hendrik went through a real ordeal, six months after taking over this former organic dairy farm. That day, “a dozen State service agents came to slaughter our first 300 hens, healthy, in good shape, tested the day before by a veterinarian, under the watchful eye of about twenty friends and neighbors. came to support us. The puncture in the neck, the piling up in the bucket, the loading in the dumpster, appalling”, recounts the thirty-year-old couple.
The laying hens of the Bréhon farm have undergone a preventive slaughter. They were then nestled in the heart of a protection zone, between two foci of avian influenza: 800 m, a farm of 27,000 ducks, infected with the virus following the delivery of contaminated ducklings from a cooperative hatchery in Maine-et-Loire; 3 km away, a farm of the same ilk, with 24,000 poults, also affected.
We do not take avian flu lightly, but political and health decisions have put us in great difficulty, made us live in an unfair situation.
“That very morning, we had collected eggs. The hardest thing is to find yourself alone, to face the silence, to go back to the henhouse to turn off the small automations, the lighting…”, testifies Hendrik. “We do not take avian flu lightly, but political and health decisions have put us in great difficulty, made us live in an unfair situation. We weren’t a risk. Economically, it’s a disaster, preventive felling,” adds Myriam, her eyes moist.
“We were stunned, but we never gave up”
In turmoil, as a sign of resilience. Three hens survived, found the next day under the floor of the chicken coop. “Warriors,” they smile afterwards. We were stunned but we never gave up. We searched for solutions, built a second mobile chicken coop and an egg packing centre, housed animals to break the silence and give us a good reason to come to the farm, and support came quickly. »
Among these, an online collection, “Sponsor a hen”, launched by residents of the area and organized by the friends of the Confédération paysanne. The collection reached €3,364. Enough to buy 300 new hens in a tight market. Suppliers have played the game of payment deadlines. A poultry farmer gave them eggs to sell, which allowed Myriam to keep her places on the markets of Malestroit, Questembert and Rochefort-en-Terre (56), in addition to currently offering them in local shops. and on the farm.
“We start with lentils, potatoes”
The couple assesses the loss of earnings at €30,000, will probably get €5,000 from state services, 50% of which has been paid, two months after the slaughter. He is hoping for €25,000 after filing a compensation file on the FranceAgriMer platformnot without difficulty, with the accompaniment of Farmers Solidarity Brittany.
There remains the project, that of a breeding gradually increased to 1,200 hens born on site, associated with polyculture. “We start with lentils, potatoes. We are aiming for autonomy for processing: rapeseed and sunflower oil press, flour mill for buckwheat, cereal sorting system. And always, to offer the freshest and most qualitative products, in complete transparency”, aspire Hendrik and Myriam.
At the Bréhon farm, 30 of the 66 hectares – including five hectares purchased, the rest rented – are devoted to feeding poultry. An approach far removed from intensive farming.