The Normande, France’ ancient breed
The Normande originated in Normandy, France from cattle brought to the country by Viking conquerors in the 9th and 10th centuries. For over a thousand years these cattle evolved into a dual-purpose breed to meet the milk and meat needs of the residents of northwestern France.
The present herd book in France was started in 1883. Though the breed was decimated by the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II, there are currently 3 million Normandes in France.
Their present role in France is to provide rich milk for the cheese industry while maintaining their excellent carcass quality. In other parts of the world such as the US, this breed has been primarily bred for beef but now there is a strong push for it to be used for dairy too.
While the Normande has always been used for dairy, it has always presented strong dualpurpose qualities. In France, the Normande has always been known for its unsurpassed marbling quality, flavour and tenderness, and regularly wins blind tests for its taste.
A special label for Normande meat enjoys great popularity in major supermarkets. In the
US, Normande bulls have won growth tests at various test stations and carcasses have often ranked first at major beef shows.
Characteristics
The Normande is a red and white cow with occasional sometimes widespread areas of brown hair. Typically, the brown hair has the look of tiger stripes, or brindles, interspersed with the red spots, and there is some degree of balance between the three different hues. However, one colour often dominates, and there is a different name for the dominance of each colour.
The representative Normande is red and white (with brown brindles), this is said to be “blond” others are “quail” - when the white dominates, “brindled” - predominantly brown and “trouted” which is a multitude of brown spots on the skin underneath white hair. Some bulls appear black but it is really brown hair, the Normande is a homozygous red breed.
Calves do not display their brindles until a few weeks after birth, and altogether, Normande cattle tend to darken as they age. Because of the breed’s high muscle mass to bone ratio and their small heads, the Normande has a high percentage yield at slaughter.
Distribution
Normandes have been exported worldwide but have received their greatest acceptance in South America where they were introduced in the 1890s. Total numbers there now exceed 4 million purebreds plus countless Normande crossbreds. Columbia alone has 1.6 million purebreds with the rest mainly in Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay. They are also growing in countries such as Madagascar, the US, Mexico, Belgium, Switzerland, Great Britain and Ireland.