Florentsimond Sgoat Diary Farm

Henrietta Conrad

International Internship Report

ISARA-Lyon

IARD 4960- December 17th, 2014

FlorentSimond’sGoat Diary Farm

Farm Overview

My internship took place on a small goat dairy farm in southern France in the Drôme department in the Rhône-Alps. The farm has a total of 236 hectares- approximately 190 hectares of woods and 40 hectares of cultivated fields. FlorentSimond’s family farm produces a goat cheese called Picodon, a French certified Appellation d'OrigineProtégée(AOP), or protected designation of origin when translated into English. Cheese production takesplace on-site in the fromagerie, or cheese room, and relies on approximately 110 adult milking goatsand 3 full timefarm employees including Florent, the owner. Currently, the farm is in the transitional phase to becoming certified organic with the French BIO label. It is a small farm, where 98% of cheese production is sold in bulk to the CavetPicodon brand and the remaining 2% is sold on the premise. The farm is situated in a mountain pass, far from the main road, so one of the marketing challenges is accessibility fordirect selling.Regardless, FlorentSimond’sPicodon has made a fairly known name for itself with Picodon cheese connoisseur circle, mainly because his cheese has won the gold medal in several different years in regional cheese tasting competitions.

Internship

During the summer, I lived and worked on the Simond farm. The workday started at 8am at which time we would feed the goatshay while preparing the milking area. The milking area consistsof 24 stalls in a double-row style, and with a little over 100 goats, there were between 4-5 waves of milking.Every morning I would sweep this area, mix the correct proportions of the different grains, place a serving of grain in each stall, prepare the milking machine, and wash the tank. The milking lasted about an hour and a half, and afterwards we would feed the young goats, not of milking age yet, as well as the bucks. This process happened twice a day, seven days a week. We would usually finish the evening milking around 9:30-10pm, making each day a full day of work.

One of my main individual responsibilities on the farm was to shepherd the goats. With approximately 190 hectares of woods, there were many herbaceous and shrubby areas that could be utilized for grazing. Each day, after the morning milking, I would slowly lead the goats through small trails on the mountain so that they could graze on leaves. Many of the trails would eventually lead to a small pasture where they could eat grass and rest until we continued our hike through the forests. The shepherd dog and the guard dog would accompany while I shepherded so I learned how to command and train them in French. Florent would plan the routes ahead of timeand in a systematic fashion so as to keep track of what areas were grazed and when, allowing for adequate foliage regeneration periods throughout the summer.

After lunch, we would rope off an area of one of the meadows leaving only a small strip of dense and verdant grass (this area had been planted in the spring for this purpose). The goats would stay in this area throughout the afternoon, grazing on the strip until it was satisfactorily ‘mowed’ down to a certain height. Then I would go back out to the meadow and enlarge the boundary by a few meters. This process would repeat several times in the afternoon and evening until the goats were either completely full or ready to return to the barn for the evening milking. With this grazing management practice, Florent was able to have a lot of control over the goats’ nutritional health as well as efficiently utilize a diverse range of areas on the farm: pastures, forests, meadows, and hedge rows.

While I was shepherding, Florent would cut crops, bail hay, manage the small herd of cattle, complete administrative work, deliver cheese, and other miscellaneous farm chores. Between the times for enlarging the meadows during the afternoon, I would help Florent with some of these tasks. Most of these times, my participation was mainly educational because I could not be of much use having only a few weeks of experience. However,Florent wanted me to have an overall feel of managing a farm. I operated tractors, read paperwork about breeding and insemination, observed ultrasounds for pregnant goats, trimmed hooves, attended business meetings for cheese sales, attended community farmer events such as test-drives forpurchasing a community-owned tractor, and most notably, worked in the cheese room.

While most of my time was spent shepherding, there were also times where I was asked to work in the cheese room. Here, 50% of the time is spent making cheese and the other 50% of the time is spent cleaning utensils and sanitizing. Working in the cheese room gave me a sense of how food production works and I learned about the many guidelines surrounding the practical aspects of food safety such as wearing gloves, lab coats, and hairnets, using different washcloths for different surfaces, and monitoring the bacteria/mold to ensure that it is the correct and safe ones for the cheese maturing process. Cheese room chores included moving the milk from the tank into smaller vats, measuring and adding rennet to the milk for the coagulation process, filling containers with fresh cheese, turning cheeses over during the maturing process, and lots of cleaning, of course. Making cheese was certainly not my favorite activity on the farm, but it gave me a newfound appreciation for many of the French cheeses because I now that that each cheese has been touched by someone several times during the production process. It also gave me insight to the heritage surrounding the different cheeses in France, such as Picodon, which has a protected designation of origin limiting its production to only that region.

Through my internship on the Simond farm, I was able to participate and learn about so many aspects of farm life and work. Florent taught me the importance of caring about one’s livestock for more than just profitability; the animal’s quality of life fosters a quality product. I was also able to observe all different ways to take advantage of landscape multifuncionality and to use resources efficiently, such as cutting a tree to heat the home but allowing the goats to graze on the leaves first. These are simple management practices that are not hard to do but take planning ahead and strategizing. In fact, one of the most important lessons I learned was that a farmer must be flexible and resilient. Almost everyday something new and unexpected happens, for example, the young goats jump the fence, an animal gets hurt, or the weather changes, and a farmer must always be prepared to modify the daily schedule to accommodate for unforeseen circumstances.

While living with the Simond family, I also had many opportunities to converse about agricultural policies in France and juxtapose my knowledge about the two countries. For example, GMOs are strictly forbidden in France, while non-pasteurized dairy products are banned in the USA, a standard for French cheese. Such conversations were intellectually stimulating have caused me to ask more questions about agricultural policies and to not assume similarities between Europe and the USA based on fallacies.

Overall, I had a fantastic, well-rounded internship experience. My French improved threefold and so did my knowledge and experience with goats and livestock in general. The Simond family is a wonderful, caring family who are very experienced with receiving annual student interns. The farm work is fairly arduous and the days are long, with no weekends off and only a slightly lighter workload on Sundays, but Florent was an excellent manager who delegated to me a wide variety of tasks to keep work interesting and educational. The farm is located in an area with breathtaking mountain scenery and several hiking trails, and is far away from town, public transport, and neighbors. I would highly recommend this internship to other students, but only if they are self-motivated, kind, and deserving of working on this jewel of a farm and living with an amazing French family.