Hello, my name’s Aurore. I’ve been working on the Poiset Farm for six years. Let me explain what’s happened and what’s happening on the farm. We stopped raising fowl... for several reasons. We want to begin again with a solid foundation... of broiler and laying hens, raising new hardy breeds, which lay quality eggs. We have also integrated the new bio-safety agricultural norms... as outlined by the relevant authorities. For easy cleaning we built enclosures with cement slabs for the fowl... installed netting to prevent attacks by the numerous birds of prey in Poiset, there was a high incidence of these attacks which killed many fowl, a high death rate, from by these attacks, causing a great deal of stress among the fowl, which is never good... So we rebuilt everything. That way our fowl would be safe and comfortable in their enclosures. We plan on renewing our pig raising activities... as well as breeding and fattening them… We rebuilt the enclosures in the woods, which devotes 3 hectares just for fattening them... this ensures they'll really become prime quality. The same attention to bio-safety measures for the pigs will be followed as well… Some of the buildings were collapsing, due to water infiltration. The house had problems because its foundations... were set on clay and limestone soils… We only managed to save the magnificent staircase... located in the middle… The building next to it will be renovated as an outlet store, and a egg-packing facility. It will all be rebuilt to be identical, and renovated traditionally... the same way as the rest of the Domaine, using only quality materials… We expect most of the buildings will be rebuilt identically, little by little… We’ve already redone the hangers for our storage needs. So all of these buildings will be rebuilt bit by bit as identical to their original. It’ll take time, it’s a huge investment so it won’t happen overnight... Speaking of changes, we made some changes in our crew as well. To start up with a solid base, I now work with two recently trained agronomists… Fresh out of school. I’m Florent Rodot. I first began here at Poiset Farm in November 2020. With my colleague Marc. We’ve both graduated recently from an agronomy engineering school. We're also both originally from near Bresse. We’ve been involved in planning this beautiful Poiset Farm project, to try and kickstart its activity. We discovered a super facility here with projects which interest us, raising fowl, pigs and potentially lots of other projects… The farm has been organic since it first began. That’s something that really interests me, that’s how I want to work on a farm: organic, and without using many inputs… As far as raising livestock, the animal's comfort is at the core, providing the fowl with large chicken runs, so the population density... is well below current norms. Lots of space per animal whether in the building... or in the chicken run outside. The pigs are totally outdoors but also have small sheds... to be sheltered from harsh winter conditions. These are ideal conditions for raising livestock. When the pigs are ready for fattening up and are in their wooded area, those will be excellent conditions… I’m Marc Jouvenceau, and I am newly hired... at the Poiset farm to help manage with Aurore and Florent. I also have a degree in agronomy. I worked one year for a farming cooperative, I quickly discovered I needed to orient my career... more towards production to give me a sense of meaning to what I do. Consulting for farmers being limited to giving advice, we rarely had any hands-on experience. I felt I needed work where I was more involved... in developing things rather than simply providing advice. So I began here last November to help re-establish production efforts... on the farm here, which already had two sows with litters. The piglets were then sold at 30kg… We’ve changed our guidelines somewhat: we expect to bring the numbers up to a dozen Gascony sows... which we'd like to breed with the Duroc variety. This with the idea of increasing the meat to fat ratio. The Gascony breed has more fat... while very useful and appreciated by those who make charcuterie, but other people want leaner meat. We can perhaps have more meat by introducing the Duroc breed. Also renewing the production activity of fattening up some of the piglets... we can sell some of them at 30kgs to cook on a spit, the others we’ll keep here to fatten up... in an enclosure we built this winter which includes woods with oak trees, that's part of the Domain, located behind the breeding enclosures. Our goal is to sell the pigs when they reach 90 to 100 kgs... with the idea our customers will be able to use the meat... to make hams and cured pork… so the need for larger animals. For the fowl, we’ve chosen traditional hardy breeds... which have firm meat, but are thus longer to raise to maturity. This means we'll raise them to be an older age for slaughter, at about 120 days. Which is rather long. For the time being we'll experiment with raising different breeds... to see which ones work out the best and adapt to the conditions at Poiset. For now we have Grey Gauloise, Faverolles, Houdans, breeds like that, which are available in local hatcheries… We’d like to reach 2500 birds per year. Mostly traditional hardy breeds, for example the first order of chicks that will be arriving early June... will be grey Bresse-Gauloise, a breed originally endemic to Bresse… We know the white Bress-Gauloise well, used for the PDO label of Bresse chickens, and the grey variety is a related cousin. The idea is to test several breed of fowl to see which adapt the best... and also have the best taste according to our customers… Slaughter scheduled at 16 weeks. As for laying hens, we’ll start with 250. Possibly more, for which we're also considering a rather symbolic breed. probably Marans, which produce less than red chickens... but it distinguishes itself by laying brown eggs… Come on girl! Come out… Let’s go. Don’t be difficult today… Where's Lardon at? Hello there Lardon… This sow here is 5 years old, and until now was never bred. As part of starting things up again, we’ve bred all the sows with our new boar... that has a great name: "Vougeot"! In two to three weeks, this one should be having her litter. These enclosures, or cages... or rather feeding boxes, were set up... for veterinarian treatments to be easier to manage. This way is better for the vet and there is less stress for both… This one's the new boar: Vougeot… Vougeot is a typical Gascon, he has large feet, and large ears, an example of a typical rustic Gascon. He’s a truly handsome boar… They're great, very kind and gentil, and not at all aggressive… This one is dominated by the two others. When these two came into the enclosure, they chased her away from the food. She was chased away, so these feeding boxes ensure... to make sure each animal gets their fair share of food… This is the fattening enclosure. We fenced off part of the woods, four hectares worth... using electric wire, like that between the stakes. The idea is to fatten up the castrated males in here... because for bio-safety measures fertile animals aren’t allowed... outside of the enclosure with the kind of fence we see here: with electric wires on each side, thus preventing any access of animals coming from outside. This has a different fence. It's just for neutered animals, those incapable of reproducing… We have 4 hectares of enclosure here, with a lot of oak trees, beech trees, etc., so I expect the pigs will be quite happy in there, particularly in the autumn when the acorns fall to the ground… We hope to have about thirty animals in here, thirty to forty animals… They'll have plenty of room to have fun. Outside of that, it’s quite diversified. Perhaps we’ll start up the market farming again. For now we are testing things. And we continue to cultivate food for the pigs, At some point for the fowl as well if we determine an adapted diet… Because they higher needs of protein. That is what’s currently established... Later on we can use about fifty hectares of fields around the farm... Several projects in previous years were set up but never really finished: first goats, then Aubrac dairy cows… these didn't really get going. We are thinking about having cows put out to pasture again here. But don’t know yet if we want to manage their breeding and fattening. We don’t yet have the right kind of barn that would be adapted for wintering cows. The winter is too harsh here for cows when they calve. But it's something to think about…