Chaource PDO

Location, surface
The Chaource PDO is located between the Aube and the Yonne on a heterogeneous territory of 11300 ha, including land in a diversity of small natural regions such as: Pays d'Othe, Champagne crayeuse, Champagne humide and Barrois.
Types of agricultural production
The PDO is an island of dairy farming in the heart of an area of large-scale cultivation and includes 60 farms, with 4,700 dairy cows producing 38 million liters of milk, about half of which is processed into Chaource. One of the cheese dairies accounts for about 80% of the production and contracts with 37 farmers. Many interactions take place between breeders and cereal farmers, in particular exchanges of straw and manure and purchases of alfalfa. Methanization is developing.
Issues and place of the pesticide issue
Field crops are confronted with numerous problems: plant protection of rapeseed (flea beetles) and weed control in wheat. Attempts to diversify have not been successful, notably because of questions of market and regularity of yields of alternative crops.
Projections in relation to the project
The proposal is to simultaneously conduct a flow diagnosis and a socio-technical diagnosis to better understand the modalities of crop-livestock interaction and phytosanitary problems. These diagnoses will lead to co-design workshops with the concerned actors, whose challenge will be to reconcile crops, livestock and pesticide reduction.
Be Creative facilitators :
Solène Pissonnier, Philippe Lescoat