Blonde d'Aquitaine
Blonde d 'Aquitaine (BA) is a breed of cattle that originated in southwest France .
Breed characteristics
The animals have a uniformly light yellow to wheat-colored coat . The weight of adult cattle is between 1100 and 1350 kg for males and between 850 and 1100 kg for females. They are also large-framed (cows approx. 145 cm high at the withers ) with broad withers, broad straight back, fleshy loins and a rectangular format. The hindquarters are very muscular, the leg round and deep-set.
History and dissemination
The breed was formed from three fair-skinned races that were formerly used for work and meat production . Since 1962 they have been combined into a pure meat breed in a herd book . The herd spread from France, which today has around 500,000 suckler cows, across Europe . In 2010, around 2000 pure-bred suckler cows are kept in Germany, with a focus on North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Hesse.
attitude
The cattle breed is easy to keep, cows are considered calm and adaptable in terms of climate and feed. The breed allows extensive husbandry with grazing in summer and hay or grass silage in winter. The breed shows its enormous growth potential not only with intensive feeding. In seldom cases the calves need to be fed high-energy concentrated feed in order to utilize their growth potential.
Breeding qualities
The breed has longevity, good fertility and good maternal characteristics. The first calving age is on average 2.5 years. The average cow reaches an age of up to 11 years with around 8 calves.
The calves tend not to have a high birth weight: 40 kg for male and 38 kg for female calves. Due to the large pelvis of the Blonde d'Aquitaine cows, the small calves with thin bones and rather not broad heads, calving ease is one of the most important characteristics of the breed.
Use and marketing
The breed is suitable for all forms of beef production (milk fattening calves, weaners (eaters), young bulls, heifers)
With suckler cows on the pasture, the calves can weigh up to 380 kg in 8 months. The extreme muscle development on the shoulders, pelvis and thighs develop at the age of 3–4 weeks. In intensive fattening , the animals reach a live weight of 600–700 kg after 14-16 months. Daily weight gain of up to 2 kg in intensive young bull fattening is possible.
The Blonde d'Aquitaine breed has a good carcass with a high slaughter yield (65–70%) with a low bone content and good meat quality. The animals can be slaughtered at any age. Despite the low fat deposits, the intramuscular fat content ( marbling ) is sufficient to guarantee the meat taste. Due to the long-term growth, bulls can continue to be fattened without becoming fat, without being forced to slaughter. Cows aged 4–5 have the best meat quality recognized.
The breed is crossed into various multi-use and dairy breeds to improve the meat performance of the calves (e.g. Brown Swiss , Holsteins ).
Web links
literature
- Klaus Frahm: Cattle breeds in the countries of the European Community. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Ferdinand Enke, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-432-92382-1 .