Benjamin Cucchietti, who runs the SCEA Le Haut Soleihet with his mother Véronique, is a young arboriculturist with a flair for projects, who places orchard performance at the heart of his development strategy.
At 28, he has just been elected Mister France Agricole 2024.
Welcome to the Soleihet plateau (pronounced "soleillé"), north of Sisteron, a land of a thousand farms, where orchards, lavender and cereals grow side by side with the mountains. Local boy Benjamin Cucchietti farms 52 hectares of UAA (Utilised Agricultural Area), 35 of which are apple and pear orchards, certified Vergers écoresponsables, Global Gap and HVE 3 (High Environmental Value).
For Benjamin, a keen student of tree management techniques, every day is a new challenge: "I can guarantee you that no two days are the same! He represents the third generation on the farm and markets his products via Jouffruit.
Thanks to regular renewal of the orchard, Benjamin now uses 70% of his trees as fruit hedges, spaced 3.5 or 4 metres apart depending on the plot, which allows him to use a cutter bar and save up to 30% on labour costs: "We use a cutter bar after the harvest. In fact, during the winter pruning, all the workers have to do is refine".
This year, Benjamin will even be testing a flowering mapping service to optimise his thinning. Thanks to an on-board system fitted to the front of his tractor, he will be able to produce his own flowering map: all the trees in the plot will be photographed and the flowering intensity of each tree will be objectively assessed. Benjamin will then be able to adjust - and reduce! - his thinning operations, whether chemical or mechanical. "My future goal? To acquire self-propelled platforms within the next 3 to 4 years", says the young man, who is looking to minimise the number of interventions in the orchard, the arduousness of harvesting and the handling of the fruit: "All the operator will have to do is pick the apple and put it on a conveyor belt!
Although the SCEA (société civile d'exploitation agricole) has been using electric pruning shears for over 15 years, this is the first year that the team has gone 100% electric. "Before, I used 4 pneumatic pruning shears for the top of the trees and 2 electric pruning shears for the bottom".
In terms of the arduous nature of the work, it's a real gain: "With electric pruning shears, the worker carries a pruning shear that weighs much less than pneumatic pruning shears. The tool jerks less, it's quieter... It's much more comfortable! But Benjamin also saves on fuel for the gangways, which require less effort: he has gone from filling up every 4 days to every 7 days.
Every evening, after their day's pruning, the workers take the secateurs back to Benjamin. It's Benjamin who looks after them: sharpening, greasing, recharging for the night (it takes 5 hours of recharging for 8 hours of work). At the end of the season, the pruning shears are serviced and come back "as good as new. At the end of the day, it's a lot less trouble than a tyre! " concludes the apple grower... who, incidentally, has an excellent term of office as Mister France Agricole!
Watch his full testimonial in the video below.
Once again this year, we're teaming up with Téma Groupe and Viti magazine - Media et Agriculture for a new season of our web series: a great choice.
Stay tuned for the next episode of VITI, which will take place at Tariquet.
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