Normande Cattle

The Normande is a dual-purpose breed of dairy cattle from the Normandy region of northwest France, kept chiefly for milk suited to butter and cheesemaking, though it also yields well-marbled, flavorful beef, and is now found worldwide. Cows typically weigh 700 to 800 kilograms and bulls up to 1,100 kilograms, both sexes usually horned, with a red-pied or speckled coat, sometimes black-pied or blonde, and a white head with dark spectacled markings around the eyes. It is long-lived, calves easily, tolerates heat and altitude well, and adapts readily to mechanical milking, yielding about 6,595 liters of milk a year at 4.4 percent fat and 3.6 percent protein.