2023-08-05 10:55:19
“Robots work 24 hours a day,” says fourth-generation Saint-Hyacinthe milk producer Richard Lagacé, stroking the neck of his star cow on public display.
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“With the same staff, we make almost twice as much milk as before,” shares Richard Lagacé, a dairy producer who owns 100 cows, with his son Mathieu, in Montérégie.
“A milking robot is good for 50 to 55 cows,” summarizes the man, met at the Agricultural Expo of Saint-Hyacinthe, of which he is the president this year.
Five years ago, Richard Lagacé invested nearly $800,000 to automate his business, just before the increases linked to COVID-19. Today, he does not regret having modernized his barn.
“We no longer have all the work of milking in the evenings and mornings,” summarizes the entrepreneur who owns 250 acres.
«It hurts»
Au Journalhe recalls that producers often invest millions of dollars and that they suffer enormously from the current surge in interest rates.
“We are starting to live it. We see signed loans of 2% or 2.5% that we have to resign at 6% or 7%. There, it hurts, ”he illustrates.
According to the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA), “the increase in the cost of production inputs was almost three times higher than inflation between January 2020 and September 2022”.
And it is the youngest who will pay the price. More than 20% of start-up companies will soon have to renew 80% to 100% of their loans, warns the UPA.
In June, The newspaper told the story of a young farmer from the Eastern Townships, suffocated by Quebec bureaucracy at the worst possible moment.
Two months earlier, the UPA warned that one in ten farms could be wiped off the map within a year.
“There may be some who will have difficulty getting through this end,” concludes Richard Lagacé.
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