Beef and dairy farms in Normandy

We visited 3 farms. The first one is a cow/calf operation breed 120 Charolais suckler cows in the Dives marshes near Cabourg. The production is based on grass grazed and harvested throughout the year. The same pastures are both grazed and harvested for silage/hay. They also own a butchery in the city where they sell their own meet, increasing the value of their production.

The second farm raises Normande breed dairy cows to produce PDO milk. It is a family farm where they milk 50 cows and the males are raised as traditional grass-fed cattle.

The third farm breed Blonde d'Aquitaine cows. They used to milk 75 Holstein dairy cows but decided to end the milk production and focus on beef and crop production. They farm 130 ha of crops and 88 ha of permanent grassland. Crops and livestock are complementary because forage (maize, fodder beet, alfalfa and wheat), straw and concentrates are produced to feed the cattle herd and obtain self-sufficiency, while the effluents are distributed over the crop areas. Some of the meat produced on the farm is sold directly from the farm in local and short distance markets.