great lakes dairy sheep symposium - the Department of Animal ...

DAIRY SHEEP PRODUCTION AND CHEESE MAKING IN THE FRENCH
PYRENEES
G. Lagriffoul 1 , J.M. Arranz 2 , JM Astruc 1 , E. Morin 1
1 Institut de l’Elevage - Comité National Brebis Laitières
Campus INRA de Toulouse, France
2 GIS ID64 – Ordiarp - France
Dairy sheep have been traditionally farmed in three mountainous areas in southern France.
With 10 million liters, Corsica represents about 5 % of the French production. With 177 million
liters (71 %), Roquefort area is the biggest and the most famous. The dairy sheep production in
French western Pyrenees (Béarn and Basque countries) represents 53 million liters, 21 % of
production. At the beginning of the 1970s, the production in the Pyrenees was about 10 millions
liters and reached 16 million liters in 1980. During the last 25 years, the production was
increased regularly by about 1 to 1.5 % per year, with an acceleration in the five past years to 2.5
% per year.
All the milk produced in the Pyrenees is processed into cheese: a typical Pyrenean sheep
milk cheese produced under “official sign of quality” like Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)
is Ossau-Iraty.
The context of production is characterised by three local breeds, Basco-Bearnaise, Manech
Red Face, and Manech Black Face and a traditional management system based on pasture and
use of collective mountains. The climate, with mild winters (in the valley) and wet summers,
allows the sheep grazing all through the year. The hilly relief limits the area of arable fields.
The objective of this paper is to present an overview of the dairy sheep production and
cheese making in western Pyrenees.
1 – Breeds, Breeders and Milk Production
1.1. Recent evolution
During the last twenty years, the number of dairy farms in the Pyrenees has decreased from
3,300 to 2,220 (- 30 %). In the same time, the number of dairy ewes increased from 380,000 in
1985 to 481,000 in 2005 (+ 25 %). By itself, the evolution of the number of ewes can not explain
the increase of milk production in the Pyrenees : + 40 % between 1985 to 2005 (Table 1). Both
the improvement of the management systems and, above all, the efficiency of the genetic
program have contributed to this evolution.
Table 1. Recent evolution of dairy sheep production in the western Pyrenees (Pâtre 2006)
1985 1995 2005
Number of dairy sheep 380,000 463,300 481,400
Number of breeders 3,300 2,648 2,223
Total milk production (million liters) 21.8 37.5 54.0
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