Described as blond, muscular and from a good family, Bariton’s online profile has caught the eye of Sylvain Frobert, who is thinking of hooking him up with Anita, or Henriette. He could also be a good match for Desiree. Or maybe all three?
However, Frobert is not a matchmaker in the traditional sense. He is a farmer in Saint-Prix, in the center of France, raising 160 Charolais cows for meat. And he needs just the right genetic material to boost his herd.
Like many seeking the right partner, the 33-year-old has turned to the Internet, where the Web site trouverlebontaureau.com (“find the right bull” in English) has hundreds of profiles of potential mates.
Photo: AFP
Farmers like Frobert can log onto what looks very much like a traditional online dating Web site, to admire the muscular curves of hundred of bulls, as well as an extensive family tree to determine their all-important breeding.
“Matches for demanding cows,” proclaims the site, in a play on a catchphrase used by several popular local dating sites which advertise themselves as being for “demanding singles.”
The site was launched in France in October last year by a group of breeding associations during the nation’s Farming Summit.
Breeders can enter details about their cow, such as her age and breed, as well as the characteristics they aim to improve in their herd: milk, growth, muscular development or calving prowess.
Once this is done, dozens of profile pictures appear on the screen, and the hardest part is deciding from among the beefy bevy of French-bred bulls.
What about Cyrano, a Charolais bull who boasts a “breathtaking body”? There is also Arlequin, a Blonde d’Aquitaine — a breed from southwestern France — who, despite his rural upbringing has a “Parisian elegance.”
The cream-colored bull Euskadi is targeting “females who live for blonds,” while Braise boasts an “exceptional rump.”
Unfortunately for Bariton the bull and Desiree — or Henrietta or Anita — their love will remain virtual, with no long walks or passionate moments in a French field.
Once Frobert chooses, the process gets rather clinical, and a specimen of the bull’s semen is dispatched to him for artificial insemination.
With the falling price of meat, genetic progress has allowed farmers to breed animals that are “profitable, super-efficient and adapted to the market,” Charolais Univers program manager Pascal Soulas said.
Charolais Univers carries out artificial inseminations and uses biotechnology to tweak the genetic profile of the breed.
“Today, the size of farms has doubled and there is often only one son looking after the farm after his parents grow too old to help him,” Soulas said. “He needs docile cows who can give birth without his intervention or that of a veterinarian.”
Bulls bred to lack horns are an option, as is sexed semen, which lets farmers pick calves’ gender.
Versions of the site are expected in English, Spanish, Italian and Chinese to “export French genetic know-how” globally.
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