Cattle : Montbéliarde

Country of Origin

France. Montbéliard, in the département of Doubs, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of eastern France.  

Australian Status

Uses

Milk and meat

Breed Traits

Dual purpose although primarily dairy.  Red and white pied dairy breed. Faces (most of head) always white. Horned, but usually dehorned. Strong, robust breed often used to put some strength back into dairy breeds.

Do not give as much milk as Holsteins, but have good shaped udders and teats and the milk is high protein and high butter fat, famous for cheese making because of its high level of protein content and a high frequency of Kappa Casein B variants. Emmental and Gruyère are famous cheeses made from their milk.

The beef is very good quality - this helps sells bull calves. 

Very docile nature. Good strong conformation with famously tough feet. Cows average 685 kilos, bulls 1,100 to 1,200 kilos.

Good resistance to mastitis, making them very popular in France.

History

Often called Montys. Descend from Bernoise cattle brought by the Mennonites in the 18th Century to France, and originally called Alsatian cattle, name change to Montbéliard in the mid 1800s.  Whilst rare in Australia, this sturdy breed is popular in France and is now found in several other countries.

History in Australia

Embryos imported to Australia in 2010

Breed Organisation

None

Australian Population

2025:  55 females; 2 herds

Photo Credit

Vaches Montbéliardes, by Classiccardinal, WilimediaCommons

Page by Janet Lane

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