Renowned for its versatility.

A mixed breed, valued for its milk and meat production.

Easily recognized by its red piebald coat, characterized by large red spots on a white background, the Montbéliarde is a French cattle breed from the Franche-Comté region.

Production

Renowned for its versatility, since it is equally valued for its milk production and the quality of its meat, the Montbéliarde is the 2nd most common dairy breed in France. It guarantees an excellent milk/rate ratio (just over 8,000kgs of milk produced per lactation for an average of 32.8 TP and 39 TB), which is essential for the production of quality cheeses, particularly those with the region’s PDO (CANTAL, SALERS, ST NECTAIRE, FOURME D’AMBERT and BLEU D’AUVERGNE). Although mainly a dairy breed, it is also highly regarded for its good butchering performance and meat quality, offering breeders economic flexibility.

Features

The Montbéliarde breed is known for its robustness and resistance, displaying good overall health, including natural resistance to certain diseases and strong feet and limbs, thus reducing the need for veterinary care. It is also renowned for its fertility and longevity, contributing to the herd’s greater reproductive efficiency.

Morphology

In terms of morphology, Montbéliard bulls have a robust, well-balanced conformation, with strong bones and good body capacity. These characteristics are essential for the animal’s durability, particularly in terms of its ability to withstand high levels of milk production throughout its life.

Longevity and Health

A dairy breed renowned for its longevity, it is appreciated by breeders in particular for its natural resistance to certain diseases, its low cell content in the milk, the quality of its legs and hooves, not forgetting its great ingestion capacity, which makes it highly adaptable to different breeding systems and environments.

Functional features

Montbeliarde cows also show very good fertility results and good calving abilities. Udder quality is no exception, since advances in udder attachments are essential for the animal’s durability, particularly in terms of its ability to withstand high levels of milk production throughout its life.

The Montbéliarde breed offers breeders a combination of desirable genetic traits for high-quality milk production and high-yield meat, while guaranteeing the health and longevity of the animals, essential assets for the long-term survival of any farm.