The diversity of livestock management practices in specialist beef farms involved in the certified quality meat sector

Abstract

We investigated the management and marketing practices for females and products in 21 Charolais farms specializing in beef production. Our aim was toverify the assumption that some farmers adjust their system so as to maximize the number of animals sold in the quality meat sector as against other farmers having different priorities (e.g. simplifying their management). Based on enquiries in four producer groups, we formed two samples of out of these two farmer categories. Three main results were derived from the study. 1)For the producer groups, the chief discriminating factor between the two samples is the number and proportion of animals transiting through their groups, and nott he total number of animals sold by the farmers in the quality meat sector. 2) The number of animals sold in the quality meat sector does not adequately reflect thecapacity of farmers to produce animals meeting the technical specifications of the sector, as a great part of the animals are marketed through other channels, inparticular directly via independent butchers. 3) The farmers most implicated in the quality meat sector do not necessarily adopt specific management practices, in particular more meticulous, more individual-focused management than others. But these farmers delegatefar more extensively the marketing function to the producer groups, even though this may involve lower valorisation of each individual animal. Based on these results we propose and discuss a new classification offarmers combining their practices and their implicationin the quality meat sector. With 5 distinct groups of farmers, this classification is more complex than the one drawn up in our initial assumption.