Matthieu Pagès, 25, has become a farmer in Lavercantière, in the Lot department of southwestern France, joining a Gaec, a French farming partnership, with his parents on May 1, 2026. His parents already ran a farm in the nearby town of Peyrilles.
Pagès said farming was all he had ever known. He said he had always been immersed in it, with his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents all working the land, and that on his father's side everyone had always been in agriculture. He said he had always loved it and honestly did not know what else he would have done.
He trained for a vocational baccalaureate in farm management and operations in Figeac before continuing his studies at Bernussou, in Villefranche-de-Rouergue in the neighboring Aveyron department. He spent a year there in a work-study program specializing in beef cattle farming.
An opportunity from a retiring neighbor
His move into farming came about through a chance opening. A neighboring farmer retired at 71 and approached Pagès directly to ask if he was interested in taking over the operation. Pagès said the farmer was the one who had come to him to ask.
He took over the entire operation, including the farm buildings, the house and the surrounding land. The final sale is expected to go through at the end of September. In the meantime, the previous owner granted him a one-year right to use the property.
Pagès said he was effectively a tenant for now, and that not everyone would have agreed to that arrangement, calling the sellers genuinely trustworthy people.
Farming within a family partnership
Rather than start out on his own, Pagès chose to join the Gaec, working alongside his parents within a more solid financial structure. He said he could not have pictured launching the business alone, and honestly would not have been able to, since buying the cows, equipment and land represented an enormous cost for a young farmer. He said banks had been willing to back him because of the Gaec structure.
He said the arrangement also allowed him to share the workload and protect his personal time, adding that young farmers were just as passionate as previous generations but liked to keep their weekends and free time, and that it was important not to be consumed entirely by work.
Raising a rare cattle breed
On his farm in Lavercantière, Pagès raises exclusively Gascon cattle, a breed well known in the Pyrenees mountains. He said very few farmers in the area kept the breed, while he worked with nothing else. He currently owns 50 breeding cows and draws most of his income from selling calves.
With his arrival, the family Gaec's land grew to 216 hectares, much of it made up of grazing land, grazed woodland and prairies used solely for pasture. He said the farm relied entirely on grass and bought in all of its grain and straw. The year is shaped around two busy periods: calving in autumn and spring, and haymaking.
A sector with fewer newcomers
Even so, Pagès said the path into farming had been full of obstacles. On Friday, September 11, his application for the Dotation Jeune Agriculteur, a state grant for young farmers, went before a review commission. He called the aid welcome but said it amounted to very little compared with the overall cost of everything he was taking over, though he added that it was still worth having.
He said the administrative process demanded patience and free time, calling it honestly too complicated, and said he had managed it only because he and the sellers both had the time available. He was assisted by an adviser from the Lot Chamber of Agriculture as he assembled his file and approached banks for financing.
His situation reflects a wider problem facing French farming: generational renewal and an industry that draws few newcomers. Pagès said the number of livestock farmers in France fell every year, with many quitting and a large share of beef cattle farmers over 50 and nearing retirement without a successor lined up. He said he wanted to remain optimistic despite that.
Promoting the profession
Pagès is also co-president of the Jeunes Agriculteurs, a national young farmers' association, for his local canton. He said some generations had grown increasingly disconnected from farming life, and welcomed young farmers using social media to show their daily routines. He said it was important to show both the good days and the weeks when problems piled up one after another, adding that he remained confident in his farm's future.
