vue - Canadienne Cow - Canada Agriculture and Food Museum

These cows, named Pauline and Précieuse, belong to the Canadienne breed. Developed by farmers in France during the 16th and 17th centuries, the cattle were first imported from Normandy and later from Britanny and Gascony. The cattle, well suited to Quebec's harsh winters, were used for milk, meat and farm work for approximately three hundred years. With a rise in Canadas population and urbanization in the mid-1800s, the demand for milk could not be met by the Canadienne because the cow was not an efficient milk producer. Farmers began to cross-bred the Canadienne with bigger milk producers like the Holstein breed, or replaced them entirely. In 1895, farmers and breeders formed the Canadienne Cattle Breeders Association to preserve the purity of their herds. Despite their efforts, by the 1940s these cows were threatened due to cross-breeding. Today there are about two hundred purebred Canadienne cows in Quebec. The Canada Agriculture Museum is trying to breed Pauline and Précieuse through artificial insemination with the semen of Canadienne bulls from Iles de la Madeleine. For more information, please visit: http://www.museevirtuel-virtualmuseum.ca/sgc-cms/nouvelles-news/anglais-english/?p=5835