Genetics at your service

The stockbreeders of the Charolais Herd Book are taking part in a collective selection effort aiming at producing animals adapted to the needs of all meat producers and stockbreeders. Whatever the type of production and objectives meat producers set for themselves, there is an answer! the registered bull, an animal with genetic references for an improved and consistent production!

THE CHAROLAISE

​

Origins

The origins of the Charolais breed have given rise to a large number of hypothesis. For some, the breed comes from livestock brought back from the Holy Crusades by the Lords of Damascus, a powerful noble family from the South of Burgundy. For others such as Sanson, a French "zootechnician" of the 19th Century, the breed originates from the Jurassic period.

​

History

The history of the Charolais breed can be divided into 3 main periods, corresponding to the various stages of its expansion.

• Until 1773 : The breed developed in its birthplace

• From 1773 to 1920

• The XXth Century : " The silver breed with golden future"
   

Until 1773 : The development of the breed in its birthplace

At the time, Charolais livestock was limited to its birthplace, the Arconce valley, at the junction of the Charollais and Brionnais regions. As time went by, this area specialized in breeding and grazing hence pastures developed at the expense of forests and agriculture lands. There are various reasons for this situation: the great famine that took place between 1709 and 1711 and the meat shortages in big cities, but most of all the fact that, contrary to other French regions, these areas had reduced common land. As a rule, the parish was usually divided into three "areas" for the three-year rotation of crops. All landowners had to comply with this rule. However, for political reasons, different rules applied for land management in the Brionnais and Charolles Counties. The region was divided into privately owned estates and smallholding farms on which the master ruled as a landowner. He could thus put his animals to pasture at will. Confirming this situation, Varennes de Brest wrote in 1761 : "Each one of these small counties proportionately breed more livestock than any other in the area, and of a far better quality. In these counties alone are bred the bullocks used for butcher trade."

Once fattened, bullocks were sold to the butcher’s in Paris and Lyon. Emile Matthieu took up the challenge and the first load reached Paris after a 17-day trip! Charolais livestock breeding intensified to meet increasing demand as the road network developed. In this manner the white breed developed in its birthplace and the affluence of the region steadily increased during the XVIIIth Century.

​

From 1773 to 1920

Introduction in the Nièvre region (1773-1818)

In 1773, Claude Matthieu, son of Emilien Matthieu, leaves the village of Oyé in the Brionnais region with his livestock, to settle as a farmer for the Damascus family in Anzely, in the surroundings of Nevers. There, on cold and dense clayey-calcareous grounds, he sets up rich pastures in order to develop his livestock. Within a few years he transforms the estate and wide artificial pasture grounds spread, populated with white animals whose easy management only requires a limited number of employees. Other Brionnais farmers follow his example and rent farms around Nevers. On the parish registers, most of them are mentionned as "traders" since they probably buy bullocks from the Charollais region to sell them back in Paris at the Poissy market, the Nièvre region being only a stopover. During the first half of the XIXth Century, the Charolais breed progressively takes the place of the existing livestock. But most of all, selection on the basis of meat qualities is implemented. The animal is put to work, in order to be strong and solidly-built but still retains an excellent build similar to animals originating from the Charollais bithplace.

These animals display excellent qualities, in terms of precocity, choiceness and fattening aptitudes.This is confirmed when the first cattle shows open in Poissy in 1844, where Durham crossbreds often appear among the winners.

However, they are less hardy, more demanding, often fatter and their work capacity is considerably affected. So pure race breeding reappears, under an organized structure from 1864 onwards with the establishment of the Herd Book of the "Charolais breed improved in the Nièvre region and known as the Nièvre Breed". It is done thanks to the Nièvre Agricultural Society, presided by the Count of Bouillé. "Thus, if the introduction of the Durham breed has played a part in the improvement of the Charolais breed, it is not thanks to its bloodline, as is often said, but indeed because it gave the stockbreeders a model to follow, using the methods through which this model itself was produced." (Sanson, 1867)
 

The breed settles in central France.

From then on, the Charolais breed spreads in all regions of central France, more and more towards areas of strong agricultural activity where farmers are interested in using them as draught animals due to their intrinsic qualities. In the 1820’s, new methods of selection appear, following the initiative of Louis Massé in the Cher region. He is aiming at increasing the weight of his animals by feeding them more often, with more abundant and richer food. But he also pays careful attention to the selection of his breeders, " focusing less on their size and build but rather on the width of the chest and pelvis, the shortness of the limbs, the smallness of the bones, the suppleness of the hide, the silky quality of the coat and on the milk producing capacity of the cow." These selection methods earned him and his children such a success that they start to win medals at breeders and butcher shows on a regular basis.

The pure breed selection methods develop (1864-1920)During the same period, breeders and "fattened animals" shows become more common and, as early as 1865, gain a well-deserved reputation by kindling a profitable competition between breeders. Animals of Charolais breed already reach a satisfying development. In 1860, the total number of Charolais animals is estimated at 315 000 head of cattle. In 1892, it reaches 1 128 000 and it can be noticed that the breed , besides its expansion in the central region is also present in the west of France. In the Vendée bocage, where land is worked according to the sharecropping method, the profits made when selling the animals are shared between the landowner and the tenant farmer , whereas the profits of the milk production come to the latter exclusively. Tenant farmers thus attach greater value to the milk production of their cows whereas landowners, from the middle of the XIXth Century onwards, are more interested in obtaining animals that are mature earlier and with a better build than the local Vendée breed. The Batiot brothers, strongly interested in the Charolais breed they discover at the 1878 World Fair, decide to introduce them on their estate in Bourg-sous-la-roche. In this way, the Charolais breed spreads west. Stockbreeders of the Charolles area, however, who had always looked upon crossbreeding with the Durham breed distrustingly, open in 1882, for their region and at the instigation of the General Council of Saône-et- Loire, a "Herd-book of the pure Charollais breed" in order to ensure the preservation of the breed’s purity and contribute to its improvement. During this period, the use of the Charolais breed both for meat and work purposes helps to direct the selection program towards the production of large, muscled up animals with limited tendencies to fat deposits. This direction in selection is especially appropriate since from 1920 onwards the Charolais race is exclusively bred for its meat.

​

​