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escapedchickens
Joined: 20 Mar 2007
Posts: 13
Location: France (north)
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tahir
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex
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Rob R
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York
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RichardW
Joined: 24 Aug 2006
Posts: 8443
Location: Llyn Peninsular North Wales
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madmonk
Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 835
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hardworkinghippy
Joined: 01 Jan 2005
Posts: 1110
Location: Bourrou South West France
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 Posted: Mon Sep 24, 07 4:07 pm Post subject: |
 
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As Justme has said, the law's almost the same as in the UK.
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| Does anyone know if I need to be registered to keep a few sheep for personal consumption in France? |
You don't have to be registered, that is as a registered farmer paying social security contributions to the MSA, but your sheep and lambs must be registered and you'll be given a personal holding number.
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| Do lambs which are never going to leave the property need to be tagged? |
All farm animals must be tagged, even if they sleep on your sofa. 
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| Any help on the regulations would be a great help...! |
Go to your local Chambre d'Agriculture and confess that you've a few untagged sheep. (If you have more than six ewes you could be seen as rearing them for a profit and you'll be obliged to pay the MSA, so keep just six max otherwise your lamb chops will be very expensive!) They'll give you a lot of forms to fill in, a movements record, transport documents and some brochures which explain about tagging, how to order tags, how to fill in the forms etc.
At that point or later by letter, you may be asked to pay cotisations to COPELDOR (depending on your region) those are to contribute to the service of the animal health support which you'll get - an excellent service and well worth the money. A vet will visit you each year and take the time to talk about all your animals - even domestic ones and he or she will give you a prescription which you can use to get anything you think you'll need in the coming year from COPELDOR at a very low price compared to a commercial vet or a pharmacy.
You send all your forms filled in back to the C d'Ag, and hopefully your dossier will begin to do the rounds:
You might get a letter telling you off, but don't worry you won't go to prison.
You'll be sent a tip tagger plus a larger tag machine and your first 10 yellow tags for your adult sheep and a load of tip-tags for your lambs, plus instructions on how to apply the tags.
In the summer you'll get a registered letter saying that a vet (not the COPELDOR one) will visit to take blood samples and you must be there to present your animals to him or her and sign that the samples have been taken. You can choose to have a cheap basic blood test or pay extra to have your sheep tested for other things which may be a problem in your region or anything else you suspect may be wrong. You'll get a bill.
You may get a controller who'll visit to make sure that everything is in order - make sure it is, but if it isn't you could be fined.
You can kill a few lambs at home for your own consumption but don't sell the meat. You can sell live lambs. Bear in mind that your neighbours pay very dearly to farm legally. If you're seen to be selling too much you could find that you lose their support. 
If an animals dies then you must telephone "le carrossage" (You'll find the number in Les Pages Jaunes) to remove the corpse from your premises.
If you need any help with French, just ask. |
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Vanessa
Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 8324
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escapedchickens
Joined: 20 Mar 2007
Posts: 13
Location: France (north)
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RichardW
Joined: 24 Aug 2006
Posts: 8443
Location: Llyn Peninsular North Wales
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Vanessa
Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 8324
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hardworkinghippy
Joined: 01 Jan 2005
Posts: 1110
Location: Bourrou South West France
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| Posted: Mon Sep 24, 07 8:38 pm Post subject: |
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Escapedchickens, If they're in public, they'll be tagged. 
Just me, that depends whether you're zero grazing or extensive. Obviously you only need a very small amount of land if you farm intensively.
You must have at least 10 breeding ewes to get grants, but don't get too excited - you'll only get about £11 a head in a "normal" region and a couple of quid more if you live in one of the "handicapped" (usually mountain) areas plus a bit more if they're on extensive pasture (Which means outside for more than x months in the year with a minimum surface of x per ewe ("x " depends on your region).
Organic or self-certified organic 6/7 month good quality lambs sell for about 130€ where we are. For the work of keeping and feeding about 25 sheep, shearing eleven, clipping feet a few times a year, tagging, dagging, vet bills, fencing and pasture management you'll earn about a thousand pounds, if you have no losses.
If you've 50 or so ewes, a good dog and a good back it's worth it as you're paying MSA, agricultural land tax and insurance anyway. That's easily manageable by two fit people, but the more animals you have, the more losses you have and urgent is urgent if there's a problem - and sheep get themselves into all sorts of trouble so you have to be around all the time. |
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Vanessa
Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 8324
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boisdevie1
Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3897
Location: Lancaster
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hardworkinghippy
Joined: 01 Jan 2005
Posts: 1110
Location: Bourrou South West France
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Vanessa
Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 8324
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"AND a strong back" rules me out 
It's getting harder to think of something to "do" with our land now that my back is so weak. I so wanted to "be a farmer". 
Irene, how about Ouessant sheep? I've heard they're much lighter than "normal" sheep ... mind you, that'd make the market-price per head less, too ... oooh, why can't life be simple?!! 
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