We've stopped using 80 tonnes of lime a year and NPK fertilisers
Crop/Production
Alain Geffroy is a breeder at GAEC Pevar Dens à Sévignac (22), with his five partners. He raises 125 Prim'Holstein cows and fattens hogs (800 "Red Label" hogs a year on straw). He grows 60 ha of corn silage for his cows and 120 ha cereals (70 wheat, 40 barley, 10 rapeseed) plus 77 ha grassland.
Testimonial
At over 10,000 litres of milk per cow, the Pevar Den cooperative is an intensive system which has not prevented it from searching for solutions to develop and progress, so it turned to SOBAC.
We've stopped using 80 tonnes of lime and NPK fertilisers a year
"I went to an 'Open Day' in Plumaugat and it all started there. What I liked was the idea of putting life into the soil.
We stopped liming. We put what we used to spend on lime into Bactériolit. We were using 80 tonnes a year. In the catchment basin, SOBAC products make better use of nitrogen. Since 2013, the entire farm is now fertilised with Bactériolit.
In terms of slurry smells, when we add Bactériolit into the pits, it's a real advantage.
This year, using slurry, I found the corn was more resistant to drought. It has stayed very obviously greener. Qualitatively, our production is improving. The slurry no longer smells and is much easier to spread.
In terms of animal health, we were already doing well technically. The additional milk that we had to produce with the arrival of two young partners, we did without buying any more cows. We went from 870,000 litres to 1,200,000 litres without buying an additional cow and with no additional concentrate cost either. That's a sign of good health.
I've always been interested in working with living things. That's why we went to SOBAC
The soil profile with the regulated pH really caught my attention. The rooting too. The soil is easier to work. Even unploughed, the soil absorbs water easily. With the SOBAC process, it's even better. Our goal is primarily to improve the quality of the forage especially on the very dry fields.
I think we're going in the right direction by taking a lead in environmental measures. It's an area where we should not be just onlookers. There are some working groups setting up with a semi-direct operation, it seems to be becoming more prevalent.
Environmentally, I've reduced pesticide doses without eliminating them entirely. And yields have stayed the same, although it has been a complicated year. I'm the one who applies the treatments and I'm aware of the toxicity of these products. That's why we're doing everything we can to reduce them as much as possible. We've one of the farms using them in our catchment basin.
The ideal would be to aim for greater self-sufficiency and have more say in the processing and marketing of our products.
SOBAC at Cop21 was the recognition of the work and professionalism that reflects on all users.
We are well established in our system now. My partners were a bit sceptical at the beginning but things moved in the right direction. "
Results
- Bactériolit (since 2013) / Enhances livestock effluents, makes spreading easier, reduces smells.
- Bactériosol Concentré (since 2013) / Fertilisation of cereals and grasslands.
- Bactériosol booster (since 2016) / Localised fertilisation as close as possible to the seed.
- We stopped using 80 tonnes of lime and NPK fertilisers a year.
- The manure, once treated with Bactériolit, smells much less.
- The slurry no longer smells and is much easier to spread.
- The corn is more resistant to drought and clearly greener.
- Qualitatively, our production is improving.
- We went from 870,000 litres to 1,200,000 litres (without buying an additional cow).
- The soil is easier to work.
- Reduced doses of fungicides, and yields have stayed the same although it has been a complicated year