“We work towards equality for women farmers in Wallonia”

As a child, Delphine grew up on her parents' farm on the edge of the small village of Furfooz, near the Belgian town of Dinant. She had no intention of taking over her parents' farm at first, though. With a degree in agronomy, Delphine worked for ten years as a laboratory assistant in the city of Namur first, then as a dental assistant. It was her husband, a mechanic turned farmer, who made her decide to go back to the farm.

"I've always said I'd never marry a farmer (laughs)!"

Return to farming

"Having grown up in agriculture, and after seeing the difficulties farming created for my parents - financial constraints, irregular working hours, etc. - I never thought I'd one day become a farmer," Delphine explains. But husband Stéphane, who was a mechanic and also came from a farming background, decided to return to farming. "He was in the process of taking over my parents' farm but, like me, kept working a regular job. Gradually, we realized that there was more and more work to be done on the farm. Stéphane needed me. Finally, we discussed it and decided together that it was a good time for me to come back to the farm. That was five years ago."

Delphine and Stéphane took over her parents' farm gradually, starting with the broiler chickens. Today, Stéphane and Delphine own everything. Their farm, on the edge of the village of Furfooz, is near Dinant and thirty kilometers south of Namur, at the end of the Condroz and the border of the Famenne, two natural regions in Wallonia, the southern part of Belgium. "We're located almost in the center of Wallonia, on the heights of Dinant," explains Delphine. "Our farm is located on an outcrop in a hilly landscape, near the Meuse and Lesse river valleys. This is a very chalky region: the soil is rather poor and contains a lot of stones. There are many caves in the area, and a natural reserve with a cave system just outside the village. In terms of crops, we have a fairly hilly soil type, which means that we have erosion problems, so we use anti-erosion practices put in place by the Walloon Region."

Happy Chicken

When Delphine joined Stéphane on the farm, the condition was to do things differently so that the couple could earn two salaries, but also so that Delphine could have her own project on the farm. Now, they have broilers as well as calves and pigs.

"Originally, the farm produced chicken in the traditional way," says Delphine. "We did not feel good about this type of work, though. The high density of animals, the use of medication, the terrible financial fluctuations, never knowing what we were going to gain or lose... we wanted to find another way of doing things." Delphine and Stéphane enquired about organic and labeled chicken, but as they have neither the surface area to keep the animals indoors, nor the capacity to enlarge the building - measures required for an organic or label farm - these two practices were not possible for them. "Finally, the Belgian supermarket group Colruyt came to us with the idea of creating a new line called 'poulet bien-être' (happy chicken, red.)."

The project launched by Colruyt is based on the Better Chicken Commitment specifications, which have been accepted by Europe and commit to providing more animal welfare interventions than are strictly mandatory. A cooperative is in the process of being set up, but will soon be a reality, intensifying the collaboration with Colruyt. "We'll be working with five partners to form a chain: a specific feed company, another for the hatchery, a specific slaughterhouse and our final buyer. This would enable us to be more proactive and competitive."

"For us, it meant putting natural light back into the building, adding elements that allow the chicks to play, such as perches, small packs of hay and ropes, taking into account a longer rearing time, working with a rustic breed with slower growth, reducing the population density in the barn and having the chicks born here on the farm," Delphine explains. "Before, we used to get hatched chicks. Now, we bring in eggs at the end of their incubation period and the chicks are born on our premises. This reduces the stress factor of transporting and handling live chicks, provides access to water and feed directly after birth, promotes gut health and significantly improves chick health, enabling us to get rid of medication entirely. The chicks can start off their lives calmly and stay for 52 days instead of 42. It's only ten days, but it makes all the difference in terms of animal welfare."

As part of their "happy chicken" project, Stéphane and Delphine switched to the Redbro breed, a cross between brown hens and white roosters, a hardier breed with more gradual growth. "These are animals with a much more natural physiognomy and behavior than more conventional broilers."

Raising the steaks 

When Delphine joined Stéphane on the farm, the couple decided to diversify. "We had to be able to get two salaries out of it, and in the state of things at the time, that wasn't possible with just chickens," she says. "So we had to find a solution. I'd always wanted to have cattle back on the farm, and here was my chance. That's how we added the calves."

This part of the farm, which is entirely Delphine's domain, required the construction of a barn for 1,000 calves. "It was a big investment, which caused a lot of stress, but I'm really glad we did it," she confides. "It's a bit like dairy farming: we have to look after the calves morning and night. But I really like it." The all-male herd includes 500 mixed calves, 250 Holsteins and 250 Pie Rouge, all arriving at around 15 days to a month old. Delphine works with the Belgian firm Vanlommel. "We love to work in confidence, and their way of doing things matched ours. They are very respectful of their animals, and that was important to us." The calves stay in the barn for seven months before leaving for the slaughterhouse on the eve of their eighth month - and not a day later! "That's important if we want to keep the veal label," Delphine explains. "Legislation requires calves to be slaughtered before the age of eight months. One more day and the meat is labelled as beef. So we try to keep them as long as possible, but never beyond eight months of age."

Better for everyone

The hog segment is the latest addition to the farm, started in 2021. In the "top" barn - Stéphane's domain - some 1,400 pigs are housed in a classic barn. Once more, the couple have made animal well-being a priority by signing up to the "Beter voor Iedereen" ("Best for Everyone", red.) label of the Delhaize and Carrefour chains. "This means that we have reduced the number of pigs per pen for greater comfort, that we have adapted our way of working to pay much more attention to the well-being of our animals, and that our feed is produced in the most sustainable way possible. We work with Danis on a fully integrated basis, which means that Danis brings us the piglets and buys our grain to produce the feed for our pigs."

Since, as the stony soil does not allow much other than arable farming, the farm's thirty hectares are used to grow cereals; inclusind wheat and six-row barley. The latter is used as animal feed, while the rapeseed, also grown on the farm, is sold.

With their 14,000 chickens, 1,400 pigs and 1,000 calves in an indoor system, Delphine and Stéphane are the last people in the region to keep livestock. "Fourty years ago, there were just a dozen farms, half of them raising livestock, the other half growing crops. Now there are two farmers left. We're the last ones to have cattle. Land is scarce here, and as we are obliged to work with the space available to us, we have decided to work indoors, i.e. without meadows: our animals are kept in indoor barns adapted for their well-being. Everything we've been able to convert from grassland to farmland, we've converted. We see the same problem in the entire region."

The manure produced on the farm are used for the farm's own crops and those of its neighbor, as the couple do not have enough land to use it all. "We try to be as autonomous and circular as possible, although we know that given our situation, complete autonomy is not possible. We'd need sixty hectares to use all our slurry and fertilizer: we own half a hectare (+/- 1 acre, red.) and rent 25.5 (63 acres, red.), which also means that from one year to the next, we're never sure we'll have the land for the following year."

For Delphine, a typical day on the farm starts with caring for the animals. "I start with the calves, after which we move on to the chickens and pigs. After that, I go home for breakfast and head for the calf barn until midday. The afternoons are spent taking care of the administration. Five years ago, I spent a total of one day a week on administration, but now it takes me three days." In the late afternoon, Delphine and Stéphane return to the animals. "And then there's the children and the house to take care of, and that is on uneventful days. Receiving piglets, for example, is an early morning job. Loading the animals for the slaughterhouse is always done at night."

When asked if she encounters any prejudice against women in agriculture, Delphine doesn't hesitate to answer "yes", making a distinction between outsiders and those with a farming background. "When we load calves for slaughter, for example, that happens at night. I remember one night when Stéphane was injured and I was doing all the work by myself. It was clear to me that the drivers were disturbed when they realized they were going to have to work with a woman. The question "is your husband home?" is one I get asked frequently and when I reply that they have to deal with the misses, I can see I make people unconfortable. Are they worried I will get hurt or that I will do a bad job? I have no idea."

While these reactions from outsiders make her smile, knowing full well what she's capable of and that they'll soon realize that everything's fine, the misogyny sometimes palpable in her sector is more painful. 

"We're still in a male-dominated field, and when I go to agricultural work meetings, I've sometimes been confronted with disrespectful behavior. I remember a farmer who asked me a question but didn't bother to listen to my answer, or if I suggest an initiative, my idea isn't taken into account because I'm not being taken seriously.

Fortunately, this only concerns a minority of gentlemen, and I can see that things are moving in the right direction!"

Women in agriculture united

Rather than fight a constant battle against such attitudes, Delphine is committed to put her energy in making a real difference. She is one of three vice-presidents of the Union des Agricultrices Wallonnes (union of Walloon women farmers, red.), an organization whose mission is to defend and represent the interests of women farmers at local, regional, federal and European level. "It's been two years now. With the UAW, we work a lot on the status of women in agriculture, and we have re-established a support system for farmers in distress specific to the UAW union. We offer support for problems of all kinds, whether psychological, financial, administrative or simply a need to talk, directing farmers to professionals when necessary. We have a busy agenda, with many initiatives to raise awareness and promote our products. My role is one of support: I assist our president, Caroline Jaspart, as best I can, and we make decisions together with the team."

What with the farm, the cooperative and her work with the UAW, Delphine has a busy schedule. But Delphine is far from regretting her choice. Her fondest memories are created among her calves, especially the 'special' ones. "The calves sometimes arrive in rather poor condition: navel infection, weakness, etc. It doesn't happen very often, but it can happen. My personal little challenge is to save these calves. The first calf I managed to save was a really great memory. It was my pride and joy. He was called "Garanti". Then again, having to let these pet calves go when it's time to load them up, that's another matter... I still find that very painful at times."

If Delphine has one piece of advice for young women dreaming of a career in agriculture, it's not to be afraid to be creative. "Adding value to the farm is very important. This brings extra comfort and allows us, as women, to move away from the stereotypical image of the female farmer from fifty years ago. If I have one piece of advice to give young women, it's to have your own project and develop that."