A limited geographic zone for our beef cattle supplies:
CONVIVIAL attaches great value to its regional identity and, therefore, favours working with beef farmers from the Auvergne and Burgundy regions and their neighbouring Départements [counties]. This area forms the heartland of the Charolais breed of beef cattle.
The group is based in the centre of the largest cattle breeding area in France. Since the beginning of our activity this has allowed us to develop active partnerships with the regional cattle breeder cooperatives.
One of our company's missions is to promote regional agricultural production. If we want to make a good quality end product for consumers we need to have good quality raw materials.
The secrets of good quality beff meat:
1) Good quality grass pastures and fodder:
Our region benefits from substantial and permanent lush pasturelands rich in flora, which allows cattle to graze during the summer months and provides fodder, dried hay and straw, for food during the winter months.
These feeds are supplemented by cereals which are usually produced on the same farms.
2) Major breeds of cattle:
In our production process we use only the two major beef cattle breeds in our region, raised solely for beef meet production, namely: Charolais and Salers.
3) Respecting the environment and animal welfare:
The lush pastureland in our regions, rich in flora, is composed of many small fields with hedges and trees, called "bocages" in France. The bocages bourbonnais in the Allier Département in the Auvergne Region, and the bocages charolais in the Saône-et-Loire Département in Burgundy, are among the largest in France. They help tremendously in protecting biodiversity, preventing soil erosion and with strong CO2 capture.
This type of pasture is ideal for rearing cattle outdoors, as there is sufficient feed and they are protected from the bad weather. The beef cattle selected by CONVIVIAL are adult animals having lived through the natural rearing cycle of being kept outside on pasture during the summer and in-doors in cowsheds in the winter.
To limit animal stress due to transport, and its related CO2 production, the farmers CONVIVIAL works with organise for their animals to be slaughtered in their nearest abattoir.
4) The know-how and skills of the beef farmers:
Most beef farms in our region are family owned. Each farmer passes on the knowledge inherited from previous generations and is passionate about preserving their traditional approach to farming, as described above. Moreover, this beef cattle rearing activity provides an important contribution to the local economy and rural life in an area where crop production is not possible.
