On the first day we visited a small rapeseed
oil pressing site. It makes high quality,
expensive special rapeseed oil for gourmet
food stores. Retail price in Paris and
Marseille is around 5-6 € per bottle. All the
fieldwork of this 86 arable hectares farm is
done by outside contractors. Yield level is
about 2,4 - 3 tons/ha rapeseed and 6 - 6,5
tons/ha wheat and barley. Rapeseed oil
business gives work for the wife and husband
plus one part-time worker
Les Fromages
de la Touratte
Mr Piot
A farm that makes cheese.
The cheese farm milks 70 cows.
They get about 500 000 litres
milk out of which they use 100 000
litres to make cheese. Rest of the
milk goes to a cheese factory. They
have about 200 ha farmland
available. They also make business
with straw and bailing. The brother
with his family runs the dairy barn
and the bailing business. The
cheese making is a run by her
sister. In this way the farm can
support two families. Cheese is sold
in stores nearby but also directly
from the farm.
The whole farm is rented on a long
lease. Rent level was told to be
moderate, about 400 kg of wheat
per hectare or about 45 €/ha.
Milking the cows twice a day takes
2 times one hour of one dairyman.
Farmer told that he is not
interested in ASM (automatic
milking system).
