Gregory and Matthew Dewavrin, owners of Fermes Longprés, have kindly opened the doors to this organic business for 25 years now. VIVA MÉDIA took the opportunity to discuss their facilities, their organic certification and also their projects.
Located in the municipality of Les Cèdres not far from the Canal-Soulanges, Fermes Longprés is owned by Matthew, Gregory and Justine Dewavrin, organic grain producers. Covering an area of nearly 600 hectares, or the equivalent of 1,200 football fields, the farm produces a considerable volume of grain each year for food and feed.
Organic is sacred
One of the attractions of the Dewavrin farm is undoubtedly the organic certification. Matthew Dewavrin, one of the co-owners of the farm, sees organic as a code of ethics.
“It’s a huge organizational job to make a biological transition for a farm, Dewavrin explains. There is a fairly comprehensive list of dos and don’ts. We must always be perfect, because there are inspections to ensure our compliance.”
Organic certification can be a bit complicated to understand if you don’t come from an agricultural background. However, we can highlight some important elements for the consumer that are essential in obtaining the organic rating.
We must permanently eliminate pesticides, herbicides, synthetic chemicals that are generally used in fields to control weeds. We must therefore opt for more natural alternatives that are more inclined to sustainable and eco-responsible development. For example, instead of applying herbicides to control weeds, Fermes Longprés uses their machines to weed as precisely as possible between the rows of the crop. This is done via GPS and 3D camera which scan the soil and improve the weeding performance of the equipment.
“Some of our fields are divided into alternating strips”, Matthew Dewavrin tells us. Wheat, soybeans and corn are sown in the same field in 36-meter strips to increase biodiversity. Predatory insects that live in the wheat crop can help eliminate an aphid invasion in soybeans, for example. The alternating strips are interspersed with windbreak hedges made up of conifers and deciduous trees that provide habitat for birds.»
It is with these kinds of techniques that organic farmers can move away from the ways of doing conventional farming.
If the wheat produced on the farm is processed directly on site, the soybeans are intended for human consumption; to produce tofu for example. Finally, field corn is mainly used for animal feed.
Le Moulin des Cèdres
In 2013, the family business acquired a mid-century mill imported from France to transform the wheat harvested on the farm into white flour. The entire grinding and sieving process takes place in a closed circuit and is fed by a blower system.
Since the vocation of the Moulin is to develop the local market, the flour produced is intended for the markets of Quebec and Vermont.
Another facet of organic certification is product traceability. Indeed, producers like the Dewavrins owe it to themselves to have traceability from field to fork.
“We have a self-service area where people can pay on site or online and pick up their bag of flour, explains Dewavrin. Whether it’s for these customers or the products distributed to retailers, traceability is ensured by a batch number appearing on the bag.”
Coop Agrobio
One of the strengths of organic production is the network of contacts that is available. Member of the Coop Agrobio, the Dewavrin farm is fortunate to receive exclusive products from other members. The company often produces flour whose grains come from Coop members. This strengthens the bond between farmers and diversifies the offer of all members.
What does a farmer eat in winter?
Not having a workable field 6 months of the year, the daily life of farmers in winter is very mysterious. Matthew Dewavrin tells us that many producers are taking advantage of snow removal to make their equipment fleets profitable. Les Fermes Longprés decided to focus instead on repairing, maintaining and designing new machines.
“Being a company that operates at full capacity from May to November, our equipment needs adjustment in winter, explains the co-owner of Fermes Longprés. We also use this time to develop new machines or adjust existing machines that allow us to improve the efficiency of our field operations. The operation of the mill, the marketing of the grains, the accounting and agronomic planning are also tasks that occupy a good part of our winters.”
The future
Justine, Matthew and Gregory Dewavrin took over the business last March. With intergenerational transfer being a huge step in the life of a business, new owners focus on improving and consolidating operations before embarking on major investment projects.
