Charmoise

Charmoise
At the Salon international de l'agriculture in Paris in 2011
Conservation status
Country of originFrance
Distribution
  • central western France
  • south-western France[3]
Traits
Weight
  • Male:
    80–95 kg[4]: 781 
  • Female:
    55–65 kg[4]: 781 

The Charmoise is a French breed of domestic sheep. It was created in the early nineteenth century by Édouard Malingié [fr], by cross-breeding of Romney stock imported from the United Kingdom with local breeds including the Berrichon du Cher, Merino, Solognote [fr] and Tourangelle.[4]: 781  It is reared for both meat and wool.[5] Breed numbers fell from a peak of approximately 650000 in the 1960s to about 122000 in 1983, to approximately 21000 in 2001, and further to 8100 in 2014.[4]: 781 [2][5]

History

The Charmoise was created in the early nineteenth century by Édouard Malingié [fr] at his estate La Charmoise, in the département of Loir-et-Cher between Blois and Tours in central France.[4]: 781 [6]: 249  Romney rams imported from Kent in the United Kingdom were cross-bred with ewes of local breeds including the Berrichon du Cher, Merino, Solognote [fr] and Tourangelle, in the hope of combining the meat qualities of the former with the rusticity of the latter.[4]: 781 [6]: 249 

The breed was rapidly established, by 1820 at the latest. Its first appearance at an agricultural show was in 1852. In 1896 a breed society was established; in 1926 this was re-formed, and in 1927 the first volume of the flock-book was published.[4]: 781 [2][5] There were by this time some 200000 head. Numbers increased further in the twentieth century, reaching a peak of approximately 650000 head in the 1960s.[4]: 781  These were widely distributed in south-west central France, in an area bounded roughly by the rivers Garonne to the south-west and Loire to the north and east, and concentrated particularly in the départements of Haute-Vienne and Vienne in the centre of that area.[4]: 781  From the 1960s numbers began to fall – to about 122000 in 1983, to approximately 21000 in 2001, and further to 8100 in 2014.[4]: 781 [2][5]

In 2022 the conservation status of the Charmoise was listed by DAD-IS as 'not at risk'.[2]

Characteristics

The Charmoise is white-faced and white-woolled; it is polled in both sexes. Rams stand some 65 cm (26 in) at the withers, and ewes about 5 cm less.[2][5] Average body weights have increased by some 10–15 kg since the mid-twentieth century; in 2016 the weight ranges were given as 80–95 kg (175–210 lb) for rams and 55–65 kg (120–145 lb) for ewes.[4]: 781 

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charmoise sheep.
  1. ^ Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Breed data sheet: Charmoise / France (Sheep). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed November 2022.
  3. ^ Sheep breeds: Charmoise. Institut de l'Elevage and Races de France. Archived 7 March 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9781780647944.
  5. ^ a b c d e Breed description: Charmoise. Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, School of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. Archived 15 October 2007.
  6. ^ a b Eugène Ernest Desplaces, Joseph Fr. Michaud, Louis Gabriel Michaud (1854). Biographie universelle (Michaud) ancienne et moderne ... (second edition, volume 26, in French). Paris: Chez Madame C. Desplaces.