Practice Abstract - Research and innovation

The Pays de la Loire “Low-Carbon Pathway”: Studying the Carbon Footprint and the Production’s Costs Simultaneously

During the DEMO organised in 2024 at Florent's, one of the ‘Pilot Demo Farmers’ involved in the Climate Farm Demo project and supported by the Chamber of Agriculture, we experienced the benefits of combining the environment (CAP2ER®) and the economy (COUPROD®). This breeder of Limousin cows is an ‘animal farmer’ at heart, but that doesn't prevent him from paying close attention to his environmental and economic performance! The CAP'2ER® audit enabled Florent to rationalise his crop rotation and refine his mechanisation strategy. As a result, he has reduced his stocking rate by increasing the amount of permanent grassland and has reduced his mineral nitrogen inputs by 25% in 5 years. His aim is to develop his protein autonomy through wet harvesting, to continue growing legumes (clover) and cover crops (fodder rye), and to increase the grazing period. Thanks to the genetic management of the herd, Florent can sort his animals quickly and adjust the mating schedule. COUPROD® has enabled him to improve the productivity of his livestock units.  He aims at reaching an age at 1st calving of 30 months, to reduce the number of livestock units (LU) per calving to less than 1.6 and to maintain the Calving-Calving Interval at 365-370days. Finally, Florent has invested in decarbonising energy on his farm, by equipping the roof of a storage building with photovoltaic panels, enabling him to be self-sufficient in electricity for the farm and the home (saving €1,000 a year on the electricity bill) and selling 145,000kWh under contract per year (933 tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided over 25 years). This combined approach (CAP'2ER® + COUPROD®) has enabled Florent to achieve a number of important objectives :1/a carbon footprint that is better than the average for comparable farms; 2/an improvement in the productivity of livestock (+34kg/livestock unit in 4 years); 3/the introduction of a more extensive grazing and grassland system; 4/self-sufficiency in electricity thanks to the panels.

Additional information

The ‘low-carbon pathway’ initiative and the WASABIS project in the Pays de la Loire region offer some insight into this question!

Faced with new challenges in terms of the environment (greenhouse gases, maintaining biodiversity), society (animal welfare), labour and the economy (remunerative supply chains, rising commodity costs), livestock farmers need to equip and understand where they are starting from, both in terms of production costs and their environmental footprint. Studies based on production costs and the results of the Beef Carbon project have shown a very strong convergence between improved economic performance and a reduction in greenhouse gases.

The recent regional ‘Ferme Bas Carbone’ (Low Carbon Farm) programme, initiated by the industry (Interbev Pays de la Loire) and strongly supported by the Region's Council, provides a recent, solid database that systematically combines COUPROD® and CAP'2ER®. Cross-analysis of this data will enable us to detail the winning trajectories on the different levels.

Why:

  • Equip farmers with reliable, up-to-date indicators for managing their business.
  • Promote winning strategies that are profitable and adapted to climate change: emit less, endure less, implement reduction and storage solutions.
  • Move quickly, because it may already be late: when disseminating the results, do not hesitate to shake up habits, awaken minds, stimulate the future and thus hasten change.
Source Project
Climate Farm Demo
Ongoing | 2022-2029
Main funding source
Horizon Europe (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
Geographical location
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Serbia
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