Maine-Anjou

The Maine-Anjou was made in France in the 1850s, when a Norman farmer crossed local Mancelle cattle with Durham Shorthorns imported from England. The name comes from the Maine and Anjou river valleys where the breed settled.

They are large, dark red with white markings, and were a dual-purpose animal in France before North America took them as a beef breed in 1969.

They are used for growth and for a heavy, well-muscled carcass, and the cows milk more than most continental breeds because of the dairy in their background.

In the United States a large part of the registered population is now Maine-Anjou crossed with Angus, sold as MaineTainer, which moderates the frame.

The trade is that frame. A purebred Maine-Anjou is a big animal with the appetite to match, and mature cow size is a cost you carry every day of her life, not just at weaning.