Mathieu and Philippe: Diligence on a dairy farm

Diligence. That’s what drives the team at Ferme 7 Terres in Saint-Sévère, Mauricie. And as the dairy farm’s co-owner, Philippe Lacerte expects no less from Mathieu Champagne, his ruminant agri-advisor at Novago Coopérative.

“I come to this farm often, and every time, I see somebody cleaning!” Mathieu says with a laugh.

In addition to keeping the place neat and tidy, this approach has benefits when it comes to maintaining buildings and equipment. “When everything is clean, you see problems before they happen,” Philippe explained. “That lets us take preventive action. It’s very rare for us to be caught with our pants down because of something breaking down over the weekend.”

The team applies that same diligence to their 1,300 acres of crops, their herd of 60 Holstein, Jersey and Ayrshire dairy cows, and the 78 kilograms of quota they produce through robotic milking.

When challenges arise, Philippe knows he can count on his agri-advisor. “For instance, we had trouble with our calvings last year,” the farmer says.

“We decided to double the amount of silage corn we were giving the cows leading up to calving,” Mathieu adds. “I also advised them to switch from Transimil 24 to Transimil 40 to add more protein to the cows’ diet and make dosing for the three different breeds easier.”

Problem solved.

“Mathieu always comes to the farm super prepared.” Philippe says. “When he says he’ll do something, he does it. He’s on top of things, and that’s what we want.”

The next generation

Philippe has worked on his in-laws’ farm for around 10 years. He and his partner have had shares in the business since 2018.

Mathieu finished his degree in agronomy at Université Laval in 2022. He’s also a dairy farmer, so he has both a theoretical background and experience in the field.

Still, he counts himself lucky to be able to rely on his colleagues to help meet his clients’ expectations.

“It’s tough at first,” he says. “You want to look at everything all at once. Luckily, I can count on the extensive expertise of my colleagues, like Jean-François Lemay, who helps us with advanced robotics.”

The advantages of the Sollio Agriculture network

Philippe is a beneficiary of the Fonds coopératif d’aide à la relève agricole. During a trip to Ontario, he visited Sollio Agriculture’s facilities in the province. “That’s when you realize that even though it’s a big cooperative, the business model is still based on partnerships and human-level management,” he says.

For Mathieu and Philippe, Sollio Agriculture offers farmers the best of both worlds: it’s both a cooperative that understands farming families and a large organization that can secure input stocks even in uncertain conditions.

You could say that as an organization, Sollio Agriculture is just as diligent as Ferme 7 Terres—but on a much bigger scale!