Ain. Low yields, fragmented schedules: farmers on the front line facing the heat
Dry and hot, the summer of 2025 is putting farmers to the test. Forced to work split days and shifts, they are also seeing declining yields and quality. The excessive temperatures at the end of June have accelerated harvests and put stress on the vines from the very beginning of the season.
Bertrand Rabatel, a producer of pulses, flour, and cereals in the hamlet of Saix in Péronnas, harvested a good week early, but the soil is too dry to harrow. Photo: Catherine Aulaz
"I'm used to seeing fireworks from my thresher. Normally, harvest time is around July 14th!" This year, at Bertrand Rabatel, an organic cereal farmer in Péronnas, the wheat harvest was completed on July 9th.
While spring allowed for rapid planting, the unprecedented heat has boosted the plant cycle. "Yields are lower and of lower quality," points out the operator of the Ferme de Saix in Péronnas (200 hectares). This is not a one-off phenomenon. "In the past, we saw early harvests every 15 years, today it's almost every three years," he analyzes, ready to work the land after the harvest. But here again, "it's impossible to scratch the soil to make weeds germinate, the earth is too dry, the tool doesn't penetrate."
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