David Pease of Ontario traveled all the way to Calgary to help celebrate 25 years of Salers cattle in Canada.
It has been a year of anniversary parties for the breed with large numbers of Salers shown at Agribition in Regina, Edmonton’s Farmfair and the Toronto Royal Winter Fair.
A former polled Hereford breeder, Pease switched to the French red cattle in 1980.
“They give a total picture of a what a beef animal should be,” he said.
As he watched the show at the Calgary Stampede with more than 150 entries, he talked about how this maternal breed has managed to avoid the fads of height and length that many breeds go through.
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These cattle tend to be less heavily muscled than some other European cattle. When cattle become too heavily muscled, calving ease can be lost.
“It would be very foolish to sacrifice that trait,” said Pease, who raises 80 to 100 cows each year.
A moderate-sized animal, Salers have the largest pelvis of any of the continental breeds and are known for calving ease, as well as the ability to wean big, solid calves.
With the use of ultrasound, Pease is trying to introduce more muscling into his herd without losing the ability to safely deliver a sound calf. He uses ultrasound to measure backfat thickness, ribeye size and the degree of marbling. This information can be passed on to commercial bull buyers who look for fast-growing cattle that produce quality beef.
Pease likes his cattle because they can produce well-marbled beef and compete against the naturally marbling British breeds during a time when beef quality is important.
Most of Canada’s Salers (pronounced Sa-lair) live in Western Canada. There are about 400 breeders in the Salers association, said manager Daphne Warrens.
In their homeland of France, Salers are better known for heavy milk production that carries a higher than average amount of butterfat. The milk is often used to make speciality cheeses.
French cattle producers also use the Salers dams to nurse veal calves. The veal calf is tied to its mother’s front leg so it can only nurse from one quadrant of the udder while the rest of the milk is taken by hand or machine for cheese production.
These cattle are named after their hometown of Salers in the southwestern province of Auvergne.
The first Salers to arrive in Canada was a bull named Valliant. Imported by a four-man partnership of Phil Tetrault, John Moore, Eric Proppe and Rudy Enzmann, Valliant was released from quarantine in 1973 and became one of the breed’s Canadian foundation bulls.
Salers are cherry red with a touch of white on the tail although more black cattle are appearing since that color is popular in North America. The hair is longer than many other beef breeds and tends to curl.
