Biodiversity: in La Forêt-Fouesnant, the Caric farm of Alexis Chevallier in the running for the national Seeds of Farmers competition

Alexis Chevallier has always been attracted by ecology, biodiversity, ornithology.

This agricultural engineer, holder of a master's degree in ecology, originally from Pas-de-Calais - his father owns a stud farm of English thoroughbreds there - had an extraordinary professional career before settling in La Forêt-Fouesnant.

He worked on varietal research on walnut trees, then lived a thrilling adventure in the French Southern and Antarctic lands as an ornitho-ecologist, volunteer for the CNRS and the IPED.

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Back in France, he worked for several design offices, focusing in particular on the monitoring of marine mammals and the impact on fauna of offshore wind turbines. "I always wanted to have a farm and seized the opportunity to buy thirty hectares of land in the Forêt-Fouesnant, part of the used agricultural area (UAA) and five hectares of woods and wasteland, i.e. thirty hectares in total.

It is thanks to a Citizen Agricultural Land Group that I was able to finance part of the land.

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Last year, Alexis Chevallier planted 2 hectares of organic fruit trees: apple trees, pear trees, quince trees and kiwis.

Production will be effective in four years.

“I will sell directly on the farm, in the markets or in other farms around.

The farmer also has seventy bee colonies.

“I have always had beehives but I have developed the number of colonies here.

I already have spring and summer organic honey”.

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Fifteen hectares of the property are devoted to large organic crops, namely cereals, buckwheat and rapeseed.

Everything is then sold, either to other farmers or to a cooperative.

“I also have seven hectares of permanent grassland grazed by seven cattle”.

This bird lover also built 25 nesting boxes in the orchards for chickadees and wagtails and a barn owl nesting box in his hangar, which moreover accommodated a whole family.

Alexis Chevallier has always felt useful for the environment through his profession.

“Biodiversity is very close to my heart.

When I discovered the theme of the competition - the preservation of resources in terms of water, air, soil and biodiversity - I told myself that I had to register because all these criteria are respected in my farm. .

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Alexis works on plant cover (green manure) to fertilize his soil.

He collects all the water from the roofs of his shed and farmhouses to fill a water reserve basin which he uses to irrigate the orchards.

“I thus limit the samples taken from the borehole.

» 40% of the farm's surface area is dedicated to natural areas: wild meadows, hedgerows, woods and wetlands near the Stivell River, a tributary that then flows into the sea at Anse Saint-Laurent from the community.

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