France

January 2025

Sires Report

BullTalk - January 2025

‘I have always admired OCD Planet Diamond EX-92, as she has developed such a tremendously positive influence at Claynook in Canada. In 2017, I was at Claynook and wanted to...

January 2025

Cow Families

Cow Country - January 2025

Normandy, in the central west of France, is home to Gaec de la Chapelle, where Piet and Christina Bakker milk a herd of 75 cows. That’s where we pictured one...

December 2024

Herd reports

Otto van Zuilen, the highest ISU herd in France: A story of Maradona, Pelé, Cruyff and Oumea Prin!

Endurance: the ability to maintain a given production over the longest time possible. There is no better description for Otto van Zuilen, the protagonist of this herd report. In his...

November 2024

Sires Report

Intriguing Sires - November 2024

‘We are extremely enthusiastic about Claynook Zeus! His dam debuted as the #1 gLPI cow, his sire Gameday debuted as the #1 gLPI progeny proven bull, and Zeus himself debuted...

October 2024

Herd reports

A Splendid Afternoon at L’Echelotte in the French Department of Meuse

It is but a small hamlet, Burey-la-Côte in the French department of Meuse, with about 80 residents. However, it was still hard to find among the small streets – even...

October 2024

Misc Breeds

Unique Overview The Leading Jersey Herdbooks Worldwide

At a time when the number of dairy farms and the number of dairy cattle worldwide are dropping, the Jersey breed is defying this trend. To give perspective, this overview...

October 2024

Sires Report

Focus on... October 2024

Use a polled bull and half his calves will not require dehorning, but using PP bulls means you will never have to dehorn a calf again. Macaby-PP is one of...

July 2024

Cow Families

Cow Country I - July 2024

‘They are all problem-free free-stall cows that show very good legs. Particularly the very good feet with depth of heel that guarantees they wouldn’t get Mortellaro,’ says Martin Biederbick. He...

May 2024

Herd reports

France’s Famous Conformation Herd La Coumière Continues to Harvest Success

One of the well-known prefixes in the national French show world is Coum: the prefix of the La Coumière dairy enterprise owned by the Varnier family in the northeastern part...

April 2024

Cow Families

Cow Country II - April 2024

JMM Memoire was the winner at this year‘s Swiss Jersey Night, at which a total of 84 animals were presented. The third-parity Memoire is a Fizz daughter belonging to Damien...

March 2024

Cow Families

Cow Country - March 2024

Jean-Baptiste Decheppe of Gaec du Tombuy at Gimecourt in the north-east of France has a cow with a special story. ‘Gourmande was not born on our farm. It was our...

October 2023

Herd reports

Boomaerts in France: ‘As much milk as possible from forages; so we need strong cows!’

In 1999, the couple Marco and Anita Boomaerts left the Netherlands for Aurseulles in Normandy, to begin their own dairy farm. They literally started there from square one. ‘We started...