The Blonde d’Aquitaine breed are a heavily muscled French breed renown for producing efficient, high yielding beef carcasses.

The Blonde sire is known for producing small slender calves which grow rapidly once born. The calves have a calm temperament, are fine boned, and develop a heavy muscle pattern.

Blondes are a terminal sire best suited to mating with British/ British-cross females like Angus, Murray Grey, Shorthorn, Hereford or their crosses. Calves perform well both in the baby beef market as well as the store/feeder market.

Blonde cross calves perform exceptionally well in the feedlot. Some feedlotters claim Blonde cross calves seem to “explode” when placed on the feedlot. With the breeds’ known high feed efficiency, as proven by the Vasse Feed Trials in WA, feedlotters are getting more growth and using less grain to finish a Blonde sired animal.

When combining easy calving, rapid growth, feed efficiency and high yielding carcasses, Blondes are the secret for success. Beef producers currently using Blonde bulls underline this fact by returning to purchase additional Blonde bulls. They are experiencing the Blonde impact with lower production costs combined with increased sale prices for both live weight or over the hook animals.

Features:

• Easy calving - Calves generally have low birthweights, but muscle up at around two weeks of age. Live weight gains of Blonde cross calves are impressive.
• Rapid growth - Hybrid Vigour and Blonde genetics combine to give exceptional growth under many conditions.
• Excellent feed Conversion - There are strong links between high growth rates and feed conversion efficiency.
• Temperament - Blondes are very docile cattle, and are quite easy to handle. This feature flows on into both the feedlot and grass finishing situations where quiet cattle which take to feed quickly are needed to reduce costs and finishing time. They are also very intelligent cattle.
• Length of carcase – The additional length typical of the breed increases the ratio of saleable meat..
• High retail meat yield - Blondes provide a very high percentage of saleable meat from a carcass because of their high meat to bone ratios and minimal fat with animals having reached a meat / bone ratio of 66.7%. There are also a better proportion of higher valued cuts.
• Heat tolerant - Blondes have already proven themselves in the hottest Queensland climates, (and the cold of Tasmania and New Zealand). They are found flourishing in hot and humid climates all over the world.

Blondes are the second largest breed in France and were introduced to Australia via semen and embryos in 1975. In that year there were 281 calves registered by 16 studs. Since then Blonde bulls have been recognised by beef producers across Australia as being a sire that increases their profits.

 The Blonde d'Aquitaine breed originates from the south west of France embracing the area of the Garonne Valley and the Pyrenees Mountains. As their name indicates, they come from the Aquitaine district in France.

 Blondes were predominately working animals until the end of the Second World War. This developed their big eye muscles and rump and their long, strong backs, and was an excellent tool for natural selection and genetic superiority. They were always hardy lean animals with light but strong bone structures and as you would expect, very quiet. Blondes show some variation of colour ranging from almost white to tan.