Blonde d´Aquitaine - established as clean breed and as cross breed.

This traditional race from France is one of the larger built beef cattle breeds.

Bulls and cows alike are long and rectangular in build, the musculature is well developed in all meat carrying body parts. The Animals have robust and well-defined joints. Overall they can be identified by their fine bone structure. The keeping of the Blonde d'Aquitaine- breed is without difficulties. The beef cattle herd is highly adaptable to climate and feeding basis. Longevity, fertility and good beef cattle qualities stand for high productivity. Calving age begins between 32 and 33 months. The average cow can reach an age of 10 to 11 years and have 7 to 8 calves. Elite cows are used for breeding up to an age of 15 years.

The good development of the big pelvis of the Blonde d'Aquitaine-cow,as well as the anatomic forming of the calves at birth - long limbed with light bone structure, long head and slim legs - encourage easy calving in the whole breed. Despite the features described above Blonde calves have a high birth weight. Muscle development in the shoulders, pelvis and haunches starts at an age of 3 to 4 months. The fantastic muscle building and growth potential is documented by the fact that, in the annual report of the BDF, bullocks of the Blonde d'Aquitaine- breed showed the highest daily weight gain of all tested breeds.

This breed is suited for all known production forms - dairy cows, weaned calves (between 6 months and 1 year of age), bullocks, heifers - and satisfies in every way with superlative quality. When kept in beef cattle-husbandry calves reach a weight of up to 350 kg in 8 months. Calf fattening is carried out up to an age of 14 to 16 months, whereby the bull calves reach a live weight of 600 to 700 kg. The meat of older bulls and cows also has an excellent quality, which makes it possible to market very heavy animals with a very high exploitation (65 to 70%).

Whichever form of production one contemplates, the Blonde d'Aquitaine breed is characterized by fast growth, high exploitation value with excellent carcass composition, minimal fat depots and extremely fibrous meat. The aforementioned qualities and the easy calving in clean breeding are also passed on to cross breeding with multiple purpose breeds and dairy cow breeds. A good example of this is the cross between Blonde d' Aquitaine and Braunvieh, which is prevalent in the south of Germany. Although still a relatively young race, the percentage of all beef cattle inseminations already averages at 10%.