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

Table 2. Description of the dairy sheep Pyrenees systems of production : results of the 800 flocks
of the extension program in 2003 (E. Morin and al. 2006)
Non- Intermediate Traditional System of
transhumance transhumance transhumance Bearn area
system system system
Percentage of the farms 33 % 30 % 20 % 10 %
Total farm land 32 ha 28 ha 18 ha 27 ha
(79 acres) (69 acres) (44 acres) (67 acres)
Size of the flock* 291 221 244 240
Dairy sheep breed Manech Red Manech Red Manceh Basco-
Face Face Black Face Bearnaise
Size of the beef cattle herd 16 17 12 18
Farm dairy milk production (l) 36,200 20,500 21,500 21,100
Percentage of farmstead
cheese makers
4 % 8 % 14 % 60 %
* On average, the flocks involved in the extension program are larger.
1.4. The breeds
Nowadays, the local breeds represent 96 % of the dairy sheep in French Pyrenees. The
proportion of the different breeds are :
- Manech Red Face (MRF) 56 %
- Manech Black Face (MBF) 23 %
- Basco-Bearnaise (BB) 17 %
- Lacaune 4 %
Until now, several reasons have limited the development of the Lacaune breed :
- local Pyreneans breeds are well adapted to their production systems with pasture and
transhumance,
- in accordance with the PDO “Ossau Iraty cheese”, only local breeds are allowed,
- the Manech and Basco-Bearnaise breeding schemes are fully efficient.
1.5. Breeding program
The Manech and Basco-Bearnaise breeding program became fully efficient at the end of the
1980s. The program is based on a pyramidal scheme. The breeding tools are mainly used within
the nucleus (flocks in official milk recording), firstly to create genetic gain, and secondly to
organize its diffusion by AI or natural mating towards the base population (Barillet, 1997). The
rams to be progeny tested were born from assortative matings between elite rams and ewes of the
nucleus, and were chosen from 320 rams entering the breeding centers at 1 month of age. The
best 210 entered the AI center of CDEO to be progeny tested in the nucleus. The rate of AI in the
nucleus ranged from 40 to 50 %.
In 2005, 361 flocks (107,000 ewes) in official milk recording were in the nucleus flocks : 220
MRF flocks (70,000 ewes), 66 MBF flocks (18,000 ewes) and 75 BB flocks (19,000 ewes).
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