I live in rural France, where agriculture and raising animals is an important part of the economy. Although I live in the south and am not a farmer myself, I have booked to attend the Salon d’Agriculture in Paris in March 2012. The Salon d’Agricola is a huge agricultural show that is a fair. French farmers, oil producers, winemakers, grocers and many other people are engaged in agriculture in France. Friends told me the show was amazing and even though it’s very commercial these days, with many things downgraded, it was still a sight to behold. Here is a link to a video that gives you a good idea of what the salon is like.
I was recently discussing Salons with friends and one of them, a filmmaker, mentioned that they had made a short film at the Salon d’Agriculture several years ago about the breeding of Charolais cattle. A television company asked her to look into the methods used to raise Charolais cattle and cows, those huge, sturdy animals that are one of the most popular and valuable breeds of beef in France.
With his camera mounted, he came to Salon and spoke to Charolais the farmer, unsure of what to learn. The farmers explained to him that they used to protect the cattle from any injury during mating artificial insemination. Charolais bulls are ferocious animals and can easily injure a mate! However, this is not the end of an unnatural breeding method. Farmers explained that once impregnated Charolais cows do not remain pregnant. After insemination, the fertilized eggs of the cows are removed from their wombs through a careful process of lavage or flushing, and then they are implanted into cows that have a lower commercial value. It sounds like a lot of noise to breed a new generation of beef cattle but the system has evolved to protect farmers’ investment in their beloved Charolais herds. If a Charolais cow (a Charolaise) has problems during pregnancy, or dies during childbirth then great loss to the farmer. If a less expensive cow day dies then the fruits are not hit so hard. So the surrogate mothers used to give birth to calves, which are still Charolais.
The last step is that the calves, once born, are not fed by their mothers, or even by surrogates, in the natural mating method. They are fed by machinery, as they are now widely fed in sheep and cattle.
Call me an old romantic, but it seems a shame that the ‘birds and the bees’ have nothing more to do with Charolais and that you might not even love bulls and cows. The sperm is taken from the bull, injected into the cow, the fertilized eggs are pulled out and injected into another cow, and the calves, when they arrive, are fed through tubes. This is as much as you can get from the idyllic idea of farming in the countryside. But then cattle breeding isn’t about romance – it’s about hard cash and profit.
Sources: personal experience and http://www.salon-agriculture.com/
