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French sheep breeds
I realised that French wool is so important in my life, but I knew little of French sheep.
This was an exercise to remedy this lack of knowledge, and hopefully others find it useful and interesting.
Click on a sheep breed of interest to learn more.
Aure et Campan, or l'Auroise
These lovely sheep are from the vallées orientales in the Hautes-Pyrénées, mostly the vallée d'Aure, de Campan, du Nistos et de la Neste, massif des Baronnies. Their origins come from crossing Pyrenees breeds with Spanish Merinos. They are sadly now a rare breed, declining from 47,000 of them in 1937 to 5,000 in 1975. Today there are around 9,000 animals, including around 1,800 females registered in the herd book spread across approximately ten breeding grounds. A medium sized sheep standing approximately 70 cm and 60 to 70 kg for the ewe, 80 cm and 80 to 90 kg for the ram. A straight, long, narrow muzzle on a greyish face, with wool down the forehead and medium horizontal ears. Half of rams can possess spiral horns. Their wool is white, semi-fine to fine, thick, and about 2 to 2.5 kg a fleece. The wool is little used, being 10% of the breeds market value. Long strong limbs as befits a mountain dweller. Lambing is between August and December and a ewe can have 2 to 3 lambs a year due to the copious amounts of good milk she gives, although profligacy is given as 1.1, or 110 lambs per 100 ewes per year. Rams stay with the herd for 6 to 7 months from April or May. June to September they are usually left to wander the mountains. What has made this breed unattractive for markets is it is less hardy than the Lourdaise and the Tarascon breeds, but more naughty, playful, and difficult for the shepherd to control than the other two breeds. I think they are wonderful. For more information see the Collectif des Races des Massifs. Image by La Ferme à Laines.
Avranchin
Around 1820 sheep from the French side of the channel were crossed with rams from the English breeds Dishley, Kent and especially Southdown. L'avranchin were the resultant breed, now found mainly in Manche (Manche means sleeve and is a department in Normandy), Calvados (also Normandy), and Ille - et - Vilaine (a department in Bretagne). They live outside all year round usually and hate being penned, eating salty pastured grass giving the name 'agneaux de prés salés' the salt meadow lambs. A tough hornless breed, easy and plentiful lambing (1.75 profligacy rate, or 175 lambs per 100 ewes per year, which is usually between January to April), combined with high quality wool for knitting and spinning makes this an attractive breed, particularly as they are also docile and friendly in manner. The wool is second only to merino. L'avranchin nealy became extinct in the 1950s and even today there are only about 2000 of them. A medium sized sheep, slightly short and stocky, with either uniform black or brown (10%) or white (90%) fleeces. The wool goes to the nose, eyes, and knees, with brown skin beneath. Open nostrils and a large slate blue muzzle. Medium sized slender horizontal ears, a short neck and white eyebrows, and a high set tail. The body is wide and flat and the limbs rather short. The wool fibre is quite long, tight, with fine white or slightly yellow fleeces of excellent quality for textiles. Ewes weigh approximately 60 to 70 kg and rams 90 to 110 kg. More information can be found at Organisme de Sélection Cotentin, Avranchin et Roussin. Image by Thomon.
Barégeoise
A medium-sized sheep, the ewe stands approximately 70 cm and weighing 50 - 60 kg and the ram is 80 cm and 75 - 90 kg. The head is satin white, the muzzle slightly hooked, and the ears medium. Both sexes have spiral horns. The wool is white and fine but sparse. However, it provides good outdoor protection in the summer pasture. It is a high mountain breed, maternal, and hardy. From the Barèges valley in the pyrénéennes. Colours are not heterogeneous in the herd.
Lambing is September to March, with a statistical average of 1.3 lambs per mother per year. It is a beautiful and relatively endangered breed with around 4000 of them. More information can be found from the Collectif des Races des Massifs and l'association FERME. Image by Roland Darré.
Basco - Béarnaise
This proud hardy Pyrénées race joins together the smaller Basquaise breed with the Béarnaise breed, but only those not mixed with merino. A medium-sized sheep with a curved profile stands 75 cm tall and weighs approximately 55 to 60 kg for ewes, 90 cm tall and 75 to 80 kg for rams, they have narrow notably hooked heads replete with impressive curled horns for both ewes and rams. Fleeces are coarse, white, and gently curled, forming long locks, leaving the limbs bare. They pass the summers, May to October, in the high Béarnaise mountains of the Pyrénées Atlantique, such as the Ouzon, Ossau, Aspe and Baretous valleys, between 800 and 2,000 m altitude. In winter traditionally they sometimes use the Bordeaux vineyards. Lambing is between October to December. There are 99 breeders with 24,598 Basco - Béarnaise sheep registered in 2022. Noted for their excellent milk and cheese, which they give with minimal fuss, they are used primarily for dairy products, the milk being processed from December to July for markets, though milking can continue past these months to produce 'd'estive' or mountain cheese produced in shepherd huts called kaiolars or cuyalas. The cheese is classified as AOC Ossau - Iraty, which mixes with two other breeds, the Manech Tête Noire and the Manech Tête Rousse. More information can be found from the Collectif des Races des Massifs. Image by Roland Darré.
Belle Ile
or La Race de Deux
A smallish sheep standing at about 60 cm coming from the Belle - île - en - Mer, an island off the coast of Bretagne in northwest France. In the 18th century Breton and Flandrin sheep breeds were mixed in the Morbihan region of Bretagne, mainly around Vannes, creating by the 19th century the Race de Deux. Reserch in the 1980s by Professor Xavier Malher of the Nantes Veterinary School found that this breed only remained in the Belle - île. Weighing approximately 45 to 50 kg for ewes and 70 to 85 kg for rams. They are very friendly and sociable creatures and provide excellent milk and cheese. La Race de Deux eponym comes from a standard profligacy of 2 (200 lambs by 100 ewes per year), though it can be as much as 3 to 5 lambs per ewe! The wool is usually white, but can be grey, brown, or black, though uniform on each sheep. The wool is normally fine and closed but can occassionally be coarse and open. In 2022 there were 900 sheep raised by 53 registered breeders, 16 of them non - commercial individuals. A very small number. More information can be found at CRAPAL, and Races de Bretagne.
Berrichon de l'Indre
Coming from the Ancien Régime province of Berri in central France, the modern southern part of the Centre - Val - de - Loire region, the Berrichon de l'Indre descend from the ancient Berrichon breed and are closer to it than the Berrichon du Cher described below. A highly adaptable, slender breed being comfortable in pastures or pens, and able to have lambs in any season. In 2023 there were 3200 registered ewes from 20 breeders, 1900 of them in the Centre - Val - de - Loire. They have a prolificacy of 1.72, meaning 172 lambs born per 100 ewes per year. Ewes weight 60 to 70 kg and rams weigh 100 kg. Records from the 16th century praise the qualities of the wool and meat of the Berri sheep, though the introduction of Spanish merino in the 18th century diminished the demand for Berri wool significantly. In Cher region the Berrichon were crossed with English breeds for improved meat, creating the Berrichon du Cher, whilst in Indre region cross breeding was generally rejected though some happened with the Ile de France, thus Indre is closer to traditional Berrichon sheep. They were often combined with cereal crops, the sheep happy on the rough fodder (or rich fodder) with the manure helping the crops. In the 1950s with the introduction of pesticides and mechanization this symbiosis collapsed and nobody wanted Berrichon de l'Indre, so from 500,000 ewes in the 1950s, 5000 in the 1990s, numbers fell to today's tiny population. For more information see Les Trésors vivants de la Région Centre - Val de Loire and Géode (Génétique Ovine et Développement).
Berrichon du Cher
See the entry above on the Berrichon de l'Indre for how the ancient Berrichon breed split into the Berrichon de l'Indre and Berrichon du Cher. The Cher breed are significantly more nummerous than their Indre counterparts, with 140,000 ewes in 2024 in the Centre - Val - de - Loire, Limousin, Aquitaine and Midi - Pyrénées. These numbers, despite a slightly lower proflicacy of 1.62, or 162 lambs per 100 ewes per year. Cher are generally heavier and larger than the Indre, with the ewes stand around 68 cm, weighing between 70 to 80 kg and the rams stand around 73 cm, weighing 100 to 140 kg. This higher weight being due to the Cher having been bred with English breeds in the 18th century for improved meat, which remains its main use by humans. Most lambs are born between September and November, though spring lambing is possible. Many rams have been and are exported to thr UK, Denmark, and many other countries. For more information see Génétique Ovine et Développement (GEODE), from where the above image comes from.
Bizet or Auvergne
Bizets come from the Massif Central, traditionally between Cantal and the Haute - Loire, however, between 1830 to 1900 mixing with Caussenardes and English breeds threatened the integrity of the Bizet type, and the hoped for gains in meat production also failed. from 1905 a concerted formal effort was made by breeders to bring the type back to purity. A flexible breed, it is happy whether penned indoors, outdoors, or free roaming transhumance. A medium sized sheep with ewes weighing 50 to 60 kg and rams 80 to 95 kg. Fine, solid limbs. Rams have dark spiral horns but the ewes have none. Shearing is once a year with black and white fleeces, though cream white is the normal, with thin tipped white tails. The head, throat, and legs are bare, with the fleece starting two thirds of the way up the hocks. Lambing can be throughout the year, with the ewes being maternal and docile. They have a hooked muzzle and the skin is black and white stripped, with black faces. The breed is now in decline, from 90,000 in 1963 to 9,800 in 2000. Image and information from
La ferme aux races rustiques and other information from Les Races Ovines rustiques du Massif Central.
Blanc du Massif Central
Originating from the limestone plateaux of the Causses in the southern Massif Central, these stoney dry uplands are a harsh climatic mixture of hot dry summers and cold, snowy wet winters, they are referred to as the BMC. They have thin, long white heads and white fleeces, lending the name. Ewes weight between 55 to 80 kg and rams 90 to 140 kg. Lambing can be done in three periods, March to April, August to September, and November to January, with a profligacy of 1.5 to 1.65 or 150 to 165 lambs per 100 ewes per year. There exists in 2024 two individual ram performance monitoring stations and an artificial insemination center, and in 2022 there were 23 660 registered ewes by 87 breeders. For more information see Les Races Ovines rustiques du Massif Central (who rate this breed most highly) and Races de France.
Bleu du Maine
A unique sheep with dense muscle, due to selective breeding for meat, yet also gentle and docile in nature. They like grasslands and have a thick enough fleece that they can be out all year. They have a profligacy of 1.83, that is 183 lambs for every 100 ewes per year, however, individual ewes can often have 2 or 3 lambs, this high profligacy compared to many other breeds increases their profitability. The lambs generally have small heads and so birth rarely has difficulty. The sheep eat a great deal of grass and produce a good amount of milk, enough for all lambs. Bleu du Maine are sometimes crossed with Texel or the Charollaise breeds, again due to meat selection. Image from Organisme de Sélection de la race ovine Bleu du Maine en France. For more information see CRAPAL and Alliance Elevage.
Boulonnaise
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