Marc Pousin’s farm in Saint-Pierre-des-Échaubrognes, France provides 100% organic, local feed for it’s broilers. OK-Net EcoFeed had the chance to visit and learn from the mixed farm (crops, cattle, sheep and different poultry species), the founder of the Volailles Bio de l’Ouest (VBO-West Organic Poultry Coop) cooperation. The farm has 3 free range areas with 2 buildings each and a small on farm feed “factory”. The feed composition is settled together with Aliments Mercier, a French organic feed company, providing local supplying strategies. The feedstuff composition of the farm is the following: 25% is self-made on the farm, 50% is bought from a neighbour (50–100 km) and 25% mixed protein/minerals are bought to Mercier Aliments and formulated to be adapted with the farmers feedstuff.
The visit to the farm was part of the Horizon 2020 project, OK-Net EcoFeed. The project had its second project meeting in Angers, France, on 24-26 September 2018, where two other parallel visits took place. One to an organic laying-eggs farm with 95% organic feed, purchased outside the farm and one to UFAB (Union Francaise de l’Agriculture Biologique) the leader organic feed company in France.
A visit to an organic pig farm was also planned but had to be cancelled due to alerts of the African swine fever in France.