Hay drying in Brittany, France

Didier Le Hec works a grassland farm in Brandivy in Brittany together with his wife Annie and his brother Phillipe Le Hec. His farm is situated in the north-west of France, approximately 30 minutes from the Atlantic.

In total, the Le Hec family farm a 140 hectare area. Of this, 20 hectares are barley and triticale, 10 hectares are planted with maize, and throughout the entire summer 40 hectares are pasture. The remaining 70 hectares are cut several times for hay and dried indoors. The hay fields are divided into 30 hectares of permanent grassland and 40 hectares of field forage. A clover-grass mix with a proportion of lucerne is grown in the crop rotation. All the 70 ha of hay area is mowed four times, turned two to three times per cut, and is brought in within 24 to 30 hours after mowing, and dried inside until it is suitable for storage. The former cold-air ventilation with an extraction hood could, however, not fulfil the requirements on the hay quality due to the proximity to the sea and the short fair-weather periods. For this reason, in 2014 the Le Hec family invested in a new dehumidifier from the company HSR Heutrocknung SR GmbH, which continues to use the existing extraction hood. “The drying costs are not considerably different to those when using traditional cold-air ventilation. The differences in quality were immediately clearly measurable. Thus considerable improvement in quality was already obtained in the first drying season. 500 kg more milk per cow from the base feed was achieved” says Didier during a visit to his farm.

The Le Hecs have 80 cows plus followers of the breed Montbéliard on their farm. Grazing and biological farming already secure a higher milk price. The farm earned 43.5 cents per kg milk in 2016. A conventional colleague currently receives 25 cents for a kilogram of milk. The Le Hec farm is a member of the SEGRAFO association, a consortium of grass-fed dairy farms in France. As a specialist group similar to the ARGE Heumilch in Austria, this association unites over 200 farmers and campaigns in the interests of French hay farmers. A grassmilk project aiming to establish a grassmilk brand in the market is currently being planned and will be presented this autumn at a regional trade fair. The association organises open days at the individual members and training sessions, and plans overseas excursions in order to allow the members access to the latest developments in hay technology.

The hay drying system on the Le Hec farm is made up of an SR 90 Vario dehumidifier, a 37 kW SR 1120 ventilator and a Vario comfort controller, with patented interval drying. This system works perfectly WITHOUT an additional heat source, such as biogas waste heat or air heater (split log, oil or woodchip oven). Three boxes each of 150 m², which can be separated from the rest of the hay barn by a curtain, considerably increase the efficiency of the plant. An additional box of 50 m² is available for drying cereal. Last autumn 60 tons of grain maize with a humidity of 38 % was dried to below 10 % here. The entire grain maize was dried within three days. The transport not required for contractor drying and the extremely low drying costs for this form of dehumidifier drying, and the knowledge that you will receive back your own cereal are only a few, relevant arguments in favour of investing in this dehumidifier drying. Additionally, the sale of high-quality energy hay is a further additional income and will continually be developed in the coming years.

Didier summarises for us: “The investment in dehumidifier drying was absolutely the right step. The improved hay quality, more milk and better animal health are clear evidence of this. Our expectations of the system, the support and service were more than fulfilled by HSR Heutrocknung SR GmbH; right from the start we had very good results, and I can recommend to every colleague the Austrian drying technique, which was developed by an Austrian hay farmer!” – By farmers for farmers!

A clear statement from a French grassmilk farmer!