 | |
| Conservation status | FAO (2007): critical [1] : 136 |
|---|---|
| Other names | Armorican |
| Country of origin | France |
| Distribution | Brittany |
| Use | dual-purpose, meat and milk |
| Traits | |
| Weight | |
| Height | |
| Skin colour | pale |
| Coat | red with some white markings |
| Horn status | horned in both sexes |
| |
The Armoricaine or Armorican is an endangered French breed of domestic cattle. It originated in Brittany in the nineteenth century. It has a red coat with white markings, and has short horns.
The Armoricaine was created in the nineteenth century by cross-breeding animals of the local Froment du Léon and the now-extinct Pie Rouge de Carhaix breeds with imported Durham (now known as Shorthorn) stock from the United Kingdom. [3] [4] A herd-book was started in 1919, [5] and the Armoricaine breed name came into use in 1923. [6]
The Armoricaine was used, with Meuse-Rhine-Issel and Rotbunt stock, in the creation of the Pie Rouge des Plaines dairy breed of cattle in the 1960s. [7] In the later twentieth century it became rare; by 1978 there were no more than forty cows remaining. Following the discovery of a reserve of frozen semen in the 1980s, a programme of recovery was launched. [2] : 113 In 2001 there were 61 cows registered, and 10 bulls; semen from 18 bulls was preserved and available for artificial insemination. [4]
The breed was listed by the FAO as "critically endangered" in 2007; [1] : 136 in 2005, the population was estimated at about 240 head, [3] and in 2014 it was 263. [5] In 2020 there were 301 cows on 81 farms. [8]
The coat is red, with some white markings. The horns are short. Cows weigh about 650 kg, and stand about 138 cm at the withers. [5]
The Armoricaine is a dual-purpose breed, and may be raised both for meat and for milk. Cows produce some 4500 L of milk in a lactation of about 305 days. [3] The young grow quickly, and mature animals fatten quickly. [8]
The Highland is a Scottish breed of rustic beef cattle. It originated in the Scottish Highlands and the Western Islands of Scotland and has long horns and a long shaggy coat. It is a hardy breed, able to withstand the intemperate conditions in the region. The first herd-book dates from 1885; two types – a smaller island type, usually black, and a larger mainland type, usually dun – were registered as a single breed. It is reared primarily for beef, and has been exported to several other countries.
The Longhorn or British Longhorn is a British breed of beef cattle characterised by long curving horns. It originated in northern England, in the counties of Lancashire, Westmorland and Yorkshire, and later spread to the English Midlands and to Ireland. It was originally a slow heavy draught animal; cows gave a little milk, although high in fat. In the eighteenth century Robert Bakewell applied his methods of selective breeding to these cattle, which for a short time became the predominant British breed. Both the numbers and the quality of the breed declined throughout the nineteenth century and for much of the twentieth. A breed society was formed in 1878, and a herd-book published in that year.
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