While many were preparing for a long holiday July 4th weekend, Red River Farm Network farm broadcaster Mike Hergert (Grand Forks, ND) spent the last week of June in central France on a Limagrain press trip. Founded in 1965, and managed by more than 2,000 French farmers, Limagrain Cooop is the leading French seed manufacturer and the fourth-largest seed company worldwide. It is vertically integrated, from wheat and corn breeding, crop production, to milling and baking. A 26-member media delegation from nine countries participated in an exclusive Limagrain tour with Mike being the only U.S. journalist on the trip. Francois Viallet, who is with Limagrain Cereals Ingredients, says that integration provides valuable feedback to breeders. “Information goes transparently through all sectors so we are better positioned to give feedback to the breeders.” Viallet told Mike that Limagrain’s future plans include developing international sales, targeting what he calls second transformation, which could involve a partnership with a wheat mill. Limagrain owns Jacquet, the leading industrial baker in France, which has more than a 50 percent market share.
Limagrain operates more than 100 breeding stations all over the world, which includes Limagrain Cereal Seeds in the U.S. The French-based, farmer-owned cooperative creates almost 500 new varieties every year. During Mike's visit to central France, the temperature reached 104 degrees. Jean Yves Foucault, Limagrain board chairman, said something happens every year. “The yield here isn’t as high as it is in other parts of France. Farmers here go for quality wheat with high protein and baking quality. High protein is between 12.5 and 16, depending on the variety. In the north where the soil is deeper, yields are 7.5 to 8 tons per hectare. In the south where I live, we’re half a ton per hectare less.” Converting that to bushels per acre, that’s about 104 to 119 bushels per acre for wheat.
chairman of the board, Jean Yves Foucault,
right, with interpreter David House.
Of Limagrain’s 9,000 employees worldwide, there are only 26 in the U.S. working on wheat variety development with Limagrain Cereal Seeds. Foucault is very optimistic about Limagrain’s future growth in the U.S. “For the moment, we are only 7 or 8 percent in what is an enormous market. With all the money we’re investing in research I can only think that we will end up with 10 to 15 percent of the market, particularly because innovation is a true value in the United
