Situated at Tournan, 40 km from Paris in the Brie region, the Trente Arpents ("30-acre") Estate has a total surface area of 1600 hectares divided into 1000 ha of forest, 500 ha of grain fields and 100 ha of pastureland.
In a departure from local tradition, Baron Edmond de Rothschild insisted on pursuing a variety of agricultural activities. Although more time consuming, this approach generates greater value in an area like Brie where cheese-making overwhelms other farming operations.

Convinced that the existing machinery would make it feasible to revive the production of dairy-style Brie de Meaux, Edmond de Rothschild first of all modernized the farm's livestock-raising facilities.
This was followed by the construction of a new cheese dairy to convert the herd's entire milk output into Brie de Meaux "Fermier".
The production line was completed in 1995 with the addition of cellars to age the finished cheese.

Forestry

The goal of the estate's 1000 hectares of woodland, lying at the junction of the Crécy, Ferrières and Armainvilliers uplands, is to focus on the long term and preserve forest species. At present, operations primarily consist in cutting undergrowth and evacuating slash to encourage regeneration.

Farming

Using state-of-the-art equipment and methods, the entire grain crop (25,000 quintals) is stored in the farm's own silos.

Livestock breeding

Daily milk production varies from 5000 to 6000 litres. The 500 head of livestock, including 250 dairy cattle, are housed in two barns. In modernising this segment, special emphasis was placed on milk quality from both a bacteriological and cheese-making standpoint. Obviously, this means following a strict "recipe" for feeding and general husbandry.
A visitors' corridor has been set up so guests can observe milking, which takes place twice daily at 4 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Dairy

Only Brie de Meaux with a "Fermier" (dairy style) label is produced on the Trente Arpents Farm. The dairy was designed in such a way as to reconcile craftsmanship and the highly exacting standards laid down by health regulators. Since every day of the week is exclusively spent converting the milk of our own herd, we are able to keep the quality of our raw material under perfect control.
Similarly, because the farm has its own ageing cellars we can adapt conditions and ripening times to the demands of our clients. And the EU accreditation we have received from the veterinary authorities is backed up by our integrated bacteriological testing laboratory.