Corse

What do Corse cattle look like?

The Corse is a small, lightly built cow with little weight on its frame. A mature female stands about 115 cm at the withers, the high point of the shoulders, and weighs roughly 280 kg; a bull reaches some 120 cm and 350 kg. The coat is essentially tan but takes many shades, from pale blond through deep wheat tones to grey, and a paler belly is common. The bare skin around the nose and mouth is dark. Horns grow outwards in the shape of a lyre, then lift upwards.

Where does the Corse come from?

Corsica, the mountainous French island in the Mediterranean, is the breed's only home; it arose there without outside blood and served as the island's traditional farm cow. From the 1960s onwards, sires of several mainland breeds were brought across to mate with Corse cows: the Limousine, the Charolaise, the Aubrac, the Gasconne, the Tarentaise and the Brune des Alpes. On well-fed lowland the resulting calves grow faster than pure ones, yet on the island's thin hill grazing they fare worse than the native stock. The mixing has endangered the unmixed breed, which may now need saving.

What the Corse is known for

The Corse's claim to fame is making a living from poor grazing. Where lowland fields grow lush feed, crossbred calves from mainland sires grow quicker, but on the sparse hill pasture of the island's mountains the pure native cow copes and the crossbreds do not. Light-boned and modest in size, it moves easily over steep ground clothed in scrub and woods, feeding itself largely without help.

How the Corse is bred and kept

No herd book exists, the register in which pedigree stock is listed, even though France's agriculture ministry gives the breed official recognition. Mating is left mostly to natural service: the 2001 count found about 1,300 bulls covering cows, against just six available through artificial insemination, where semen rather than a live bull is used. Numbers have stayed steady since. Some six females out of ten are put to Corse bulls and so keep the line unmixed; the remainder go to mainland sires to breed faster-growing calves for better land.

What the Corse is kept for

For centuries these cattle worked, hauling ploughs and gear on the island's cereal farms, while a cow gave only a modest amount of milk on the side. An ox worn out from labour still supplied meat. That order has reversed: beef is now the main output. Most animals sent for slaughter are young bulls, known in the Corsican language as manzu, killed at ten to twelve months old when they weigh around 140 to 180 kg alive. They are raised at liberty across the mountains' scrub and open woods.

The land and climate of the Corse

The breed lives outdoors on Corsica's rough hill country. Its animals graze free over the maquis, the dense low scrub that covers much of the island's mountains, and browse the growth beneath its woodlands. Such feed is thin, and the Corse handles it well; heavier mainland crosses, quicker to fatten on rich lowland grass, cannot manage there.

Related breeds and crosses

Six mainland French breeds have supplied sires for crossing since the 1960s: the Limousine, Charolaise, Aubrac, Gasconne, Tarentaise and Brune des Alpes. The aim is calves that fatten quickly on good low pasture. These crosses suit only the better land, however, and their spread is what has squeezed the unmixed island breed.

Numbers, conservation and the herd book

A 2001 count put the breed at 28,000 cows, with roughly 1,300 bulls serving naturally and six held for artificial insemination. Since then the total has been steady. About six in ten females are mated pure. The worry is not the total but the mixing: decades of outside sires have pushed the original type back, and it may need deliberate conservation to keep the unmixed island cow going.

Questions people ask about Corse

Good reading and sources

• Corsican cattle on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data