A farmer shaping the land­scape

In 2016, the Ministry for Terri­to­ries singled out Rémi’s farm in Vernand because of ‘its shared, sustain­able agri­cul­tural land­scape’. Eight years later, he welcomed The Furrow to show us around the farm. So, what steps has he taken to achieve his orig­inal aim?

Archi­tec­ture and agri­cul­ture, an unusual combi­na­tion

Rémi and his brother, Pierre, both under­took lengthy studies after training as choris­ters at a regional choir school. Towards the end of their studies, Pierre in archi­tec­ture at Saint-Etienne and Rémi in land­scape archi­tec­ture at Blois, they decided to focus their theses on the inte­gra­tion of farming in the land­scape, basing their work on the family farm.

Grad­u­ating in 2006, the Janin brothers set up an agency, Fabriques Archi­tec­tures Paysages (which trans­lates as Land­scape Archi­tec­ture). They completed several projects for local author­i­ties and indi­vid­uals based in the rural sector. In 2017, Rémi moved into the farm in Vernand, taking over from his retiring mother.

Good commu­ni­ca­tion with his neigh­bours is impor­tant to Remi, partic­u­larly as he gained addi­tional neigh­bours following the Covid-19 pandemic, when new fami­lies moved to the surrounding villages and districts. “But the number of farms – espe­cially dairy farms – continues to fall,” he says.

Direct marketing and organic farming

The family’s 100-head flock of Rava, Bizet and Noire du Velay sheep are kept outdoors year-round, as well as their Aubrac cattle. And when it comes to marketing their beef and lamb, Rémi’s mother and her husband started direct sales shortly after taking over the farm in 1989.

The shift to organic came natu­rally just a few years later in 1992. “Today, we farm around 92ha, and 82 of these are perma­nent grass­land,” says Rémi. “I’m proud to sell 8-10-month-old calves who have lived outside with their mothers year-round, being fed on grass topped up with hay in the winter,” he adds.

In the back­ground, the farm in Vernand, Fourneaux, Loire, 60km north-west of Lyon.

The young cattle live on the pasture together with their mothers all year round.

Fresh meat directly to customers

The farm runs a tried-and-tested system, from slaughter at the begin­ning of each week, to butchering the meat and selling it at the weekend. Customers, some of whom have been loyal to the farm for 30 years, can buy their meat every Friday at the market in Roanne, a 20-minute drive away from the farm.

The market repre­sents 70% of the farm’s busi­ness, but addi­tional sales come from meat boxes, in partic­ular through the Asso­ci­a­tion pour le Main­tien d’une Agri­cul­ture Paysanne (AMAP – the asso­ci­a­tion for main­te­nance of tradi­tional agri­cul­ture), based 15 minutes away. AMAP is a subscrip­tion-based service which promotes local and regional food. It organ­ises the supply of produce from local farmers or market gardeners under a contract arrange­ment.

Rémi delivers 3kg or 5kg meat boxes to the asso­ci­a­tion once a month, containing veal, sausages and merguez sausages (beef, lamb, or veal), lamb shanks and more. “Infla­tion of our costs has eroded our margins, but our retail prices are still reason­able,” Remi says.

Responding to climate change

Because of his back­ground, Rémi believes it is the combi­na­tion of soil and animals that make up the land­scape. “When I moved to Vernand, I gave equal weight to the prof­itable voca­tion of breeding and to increasing biodi­ver­sity, while not forget­ting our collec­tive ambi­tion through the creation of our Poly­cul­ture Asso­ci­a­tion,” he remi­nisces.

The Poly­cul­ture Asso­ci­a­tion was created in 2008 and lauded by the Ministry for Ecolog­ical Tran­si­tion in 2016. The asso­ci­a­tion brings together farmers and the public, via a perma­nent foot­path through the farm, and regular events attended by hundreds of people.

Since 2017, climate change has become one of Rémi’s major prior­i­ties. “Grass­land often suffers in the summer, but I’m glad I divided Vernand from 10 to 30 plots to promote rota­tional grazing,” he says. “We’ve planted hedges using native plants, recre­ated small ponds which have had to deal with years of drought, and cleared access to cool areas under trees, which are great spaces for the herd to get comfort­able. “Unfor­tu­nately, we’ve had to buy extra feed some years, but the aim is to remain self-suffi­cient. We’ve increased the amount of land for crops to produce bread wheat which we sell directly, providing us with diver­si­fi­ca­tion from live­stock farming.”

On the 10 culti­vated hectares, Rémi applies solid agro­nomic prac­tices: Strip crop­ping bordered by planting in a move towards agro­forestry, shallow tillage where appro­priate, and an extended rota­tion of wheat, meslin (wheat and rye grown together), and grass­land. Michel Laurent, who works full-time on the farm moni­toring the live­stock and crops, has managed to keep on top of mech­a­ni­sa­tion costs by joining several farm machinery co-oper­a­tives.

As the archi­tect of the land­scape on his farm, will Rémi reverse the march of climate change? The future will tell, and hope­fully in a posi­tive way, consid­ering the efforts being made. This father of two, who still teaches archi­tec­ture in Cler­mont-Ferrand, is already living his farmer’s life to the full, while opening his doors wide to neigh­bours and friends through the Poly­cul­ture Asso­ci­a­tion.