Sannen

Origin and location

The Saanen breed is used in particular in the South-East, the Centre and the West of France. It gives excellent results, showing that it can adapt to a wide variation of different foodstuffs, in the mountains or in the plain.

Aptitudes and uses
The Saanen goat is a thick-set solid animal, with high milking qualities which adapts very well to different farm management methods, notably intensive. The Saanen goat is calm, strongly developed, with a short, dense, silky coat. The coat is uniformly white. The head has a straight profile. The chest is deep, wide and long, hence its great thoracic capacity. The shoulder is wide and well attached, the withers full and well covered. The legs are correct and the walk regular. The udder is well attached, very wide at the top.

Performances

The Saanen is the most widely distributed breed in the world of the milking goat breeds. Since the 1970s, it has had a spectacular development in France, where selection is aimed at improving milk production (milk yield, protein and fat %) and morphology. With more than 120,000 goats in performance testing, 27,800 of them by artificial insemination, the French Saanen breed is the most successful of its category in the world.

Alpine

Origin and location
The Alpine breed is reared in all the areas of France where goats are usually to be found. It is particularly widespread in the middle valley of the Loire and its tributaries, in the valleys of the Saône and the Rhône and in the Poitou-Charentes region. In Savoy, the birthplace of the breed, there is still considerable activity in the breed. The Alpine is today the most widely used breed in France with 55% of the females in the Milk Recording.

Aptitudes and uses

The Alpine goat is medium sized and produces large quantities of milk. It is hardy and adapts perfectly to indoor systems, or to being at pasture or in mountain conditions.
Its coat is short, and the fawn-colored animal is the most widespread. Strains with many colors can also be found.
The chest is deep, the pelvis wide and straight. The limbs are strong and the lean joints give good legs. The udder is voluminous, well attached at the front and at the rear, and retracts well after milking. The teats, which stand out from the udder, are directed forwards and are approximately parallel.

Performances

Since the 1970s, the French Alpine goat have been selected within the framework of a collective scheme for the improvement of milking qualities. With a recorded foundation stock of more than 165,000 goats, of which 40,000 are artificially inseminated, the French Alpine has performances which are vastly superior to similar varieties used in other countries of the world.

Simental

The Simmental or Swiss Fleckvieh is a Swiss breed of dual-purpose cattle. It is reddish in color with white markings, and is raised for both milk and meat.
Among the older and most widely distributed of all breeds of cattle in the world, and recorded since the Middle Ages, the Simmental breed has contributed to the creation of several other famous European breeds, including the Montbeliarde (France), the Pezzata Rossa d’Oropa (Italy), and the Fleckvieh (Germany and Austria).

Limousin

The Limousin is a French breed of beef cattle from the Limousin and Marche regions of France. It was formerly used mainly as a draught animal, but in modern times is reared for beef. A herd book was established in France in 1886. With the mechanization of agriculture in the twentieth century, numbers declined. In the 1960s, there were still more than 250,000 heads.
Calves born at birth are underweight, which in turn reduces childbirth problems. The high ratio of meat to bone and low fat causes outstanding performance of the limousine carcass. The ratio of meat to waste such as bone and fat in these cows is excellent. In some carcasses 80% yield has been observed.

Jersey

The Jersey is a British breed of small dairy cattle from Jersey, in the Channel Islands. It is highly productive – cows may give over 10 times their own weight in milk per lactation; the milk is high in butterfat and has a characteristic yellowish tinge.
The Jersey adapts well to various climates and environments, and unlike many breeds originating in temperate climates, it tolerates heat well. It has been exported to many countries of the world; in some of them, including Denmark, France, New Zealand, and the United States, it has developed into an independent breed.

Brown Swiss

The Brown Swiss or American Brown Swiss is an American breed of dairy cattle. It derives from the traditional triple-purpose Braunvieh of the Alpine region of Europe, but has diverged substantially from it. Milk yield was measured in 2013 at 10231 kg per year; the milk has about 4% butterfat and 3.5% protein and is suitable for making cheese.

 In the twentieth century the Brown Swiss became a world breed, with a global population estimated in 1990 at seven million head. It has been much used for cross-breeding and has influenced a number of modern breeds.

Montbeliarde

The Montbéliarde is a breed of red pied dairy cattle from the area of Montbéliard, in eastern France. It is used mainly for dairying and particularly for cheese making.
The animals are red pied with white heads and short horns, and of dairy type. Mature cows weigh 600 to 700 kg and stand about 145 cm tall at the withers, and mature bulls weigh 900 to 1,200 kg. The milk is particularly well suited to cheese making because of a high frequency of kappa casein BB variants, giving higher yields of cheese. Being of less extreme dairy type than modern Holsteins, the cows have lower milk yields, but better longevity and fertility and lower cell counts in the milk, indicating lower mastitis incidence.
Montbéliarde cattle are mainly a dairy breed, but have better beef characteristics than Holstein cattle. Nearly 400,000 milk recorded Montbéliarde cows are in France with an average adult lactation of 7,486 liters at 3.9% butterfat and 3.45% protein. The milk protein is of a type well suited to cheese making, and some herds are fed a hay-based diet to produce milk specifically for this purpose. Cull cows and bull calves are worth more than Holsteins. The breed has spread to many countries and is becoming popular for crossing with Holsteins to give improved longevity and fertility.