THE FARM
OF THE PURPAN ENGINEERING SCHOOL
The farm since its creation in 1919. It has been established since 1973 on the Domaine de Lamothe in Seysses, 20 km from Toulouse..
It is a mixed crop-livestock farm with an area of 218 ha, with dairy cows and laying hens.
Automated milking is carried out by two robots installed in a building commissioned in 2013.
The Lamothe Campus, an educational tool
First of all, it is an educational tool where the School’s engineering students discover the profession of farmer, the techniques, organisation and management of a farm.
From this perspective, the farm functions as an independent entity where all economic realities interact. As a result, the farm is also a place of information and training for the professional world, where new techniques and technologies can be highlighted and their value demonstrated.
EXPERIMENTATION AND RESEARCH
The second vocation of the farm concerns experimentation and research..
The production tools have been designed o allow the implementation of experiments in support of the School’s various research projects.
Four platforms exist today: :
- the agronomic platform
- the dairy platform
- the poultry platform
- the methanisation platform.
The Lamothe Campus thus makes it possible o raise students’ awareness of innovation (equipment, techniques),experimentation and current agricultural issues, by encouraging exchanges between teacher-researchers, farm staff, students and also farmers.
Indeed, the results of the experiments conducted on the farm are disseminated to a varied public.
The farm is looking for solutions to develop forage autonomy in order to secure the forage system and limit the purchase of concentrated feed while maintaining current animal production levels.
The Prim’ Holstein herd has an average level of 9000 L with 42 g/kg of butter content and 32 g/kg of protein content. Sowing alfalfa, harvesting meslin, lengthening rotations and limiting tillage should help achieve this objective.
