Louise Douillet, edited by Gauthier Delomez 06:11, August 20, 2022

Drought is causing a lot of hardship for farmers.

This is the case for the breeders of salers, a raw milk PDO cheese typical of Cantal, whose production has been stopped for an indefinite period.

A shortage of this cheese is looming as farmers hope for a weather boost.

Laurent Roux has been struggling to feed his 37 dairy cows for two months now, for lack of rain and therefore of sufficient grass.

"It crunches under your feet, as if you were walking on rusks", illustrates the breeder at the microphone of Europe 1. Like him, 75 other producers of AOP cheese from Salers, a raw milk cheese typical of Cantal, undergo the lack of fresh grass due to drought.

The production of this flagship Cantal cheese has therefore been suspended for an indefinite period.

No cheese after All Saints

AOP producers have very strict specifications to respect: their cows must eat at least 75% grass in the pasture.

This is what gives a very yellow paste, full of aromas, but there is a shortage of salters.

“Out of 375 cheeses, today, we only made 125,” explains the breeder.

"After All Saints Day, I won't have any more cheese at all. We will have to wait until next year, in April, to resume production and wait until July 15 because it is three years of ripening", explains he.

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To avoid the shortage, the head of the AOP Laurent Lours sent a request for derogation to the Inao, the National Institute of Origin and Quality, to revise the criteria downwards, with a minimum of 50 % pasture grass rather than 75%.

Farmers are now waiting for a boost from above.

"We cross our fingers so that it rains and that in a month, we can leave," he hopes.

"The objective is to try to lose only one month of production out of the six-seven that we had."

Time is running out: Salers is a seasonal cheese, produced only between April 15 and November 15.