French farmers look for ways to make their dairy farms greener

Every year, the dairy industry spends between €200,000 and €250,000 on reducing carbon emissions from farms. There are many ways to go green.

For the past six years, Cyril Adam, a dairy farmer at Gaec de Perseigne, has been working to reduce his greenhouse gas emissions. Firstly, he has reviewed the feed he feeds his animals, which are natural and produced in France. Cyril's aim is to produce his own feed on the farm. To feed the cows, 130 hectares of grassland are preserved. These meadows capture CO2, the main greenhouse gas.

Ten times more carbon stored than average

Finally, he maintains 22 km of hedgerows, a remarkable amount for the region. ‘It captures all the carbon that is produced. It's good for livestock farming,’ explains Bruno Guillou, an advisor with the Sodiaal dairy cooperative. He advises farmers on how to improve their practices. With this support, Cyril Adam's farm stores ten times more carbon than the national average. The dairy industry spends between €200,000 and €250,000 a year on reducing carbon emissions from farms.
SHOTLIST
LOCATION: Villeneuve-en-Perseigne (Sarthe)

VS Cyril Adam, giving feed supplements to his stall cows.

00 :11 :18 SOUNDBITE (French) Cyril Adam, Dairy farmer, Gaec de Perseigne: "In the ration, we'll find a third of grass. The other part is maize silage and part is concentrate, which is rapeseed shavings."

00 :23 :19 Q (French), Journalist: "Is all this natural?"

SOUNDBITE (French) Cyril Adam, Dairy farmer, Gaec de Perseigne: "It's all natural, it's good and it's produced in France... It hasn't crossed the Atlantic!"

VS Cyril Adam giving a calf a bottle of milk.

VS Farmers walking through meadows with hedges.

00 :46 :22 VOXPOP (French) Farmer: "We'll see the hedge over there."

00 :56 :13 : SOUNDBITE (French) Bruno Guillou, advisor to the Sodiaal dairy cooperative: "Here, we're in a plot of one and a half hectares and the plot is surrounded by hedges. This allows us to capture all the carbon that is produced. In that sense, it's interesting for livestock farming."

VS Exterior and interior shots of the farmer's house, Cyril Adam and Bruno Guillou looking at carbon footprint documents for the Adam brothers' farm.

01 :19 :23 SOUNDBITE (French) Bruno Guillou, Advisor to the Sodiaal dairy cooperative: "You have a very large storage capacity."

SOUNDBITE (French) Cyril Adam, Dairy farmer, Gaec de Perseigne: "Thanks to the meadows..."

SOUNDBITE (French) Bruno Guillou: "Yes, so it's a very good footprint!"

They study the documents.

01 :33 :14 SOUNDBITE (French) Bruno Guillou, Advisor to the Sodiaal dairy cooperative: "The carbon footprint costs €1,200."

Cyril Adam: "1,200 euros"

01 :35 :23 SOUNDBITE (French) Bruno Guillou, Advisor to the Sodiaal dairy cooperative: "At our dairy, we have organised more than 1,500 carbon footprints and there are still many to do."

VS Cows in the cowshed.