Manitou Maine- Anjou

Blink and you’ll miss it. That’s Marsden, Saskatchewan. What’s not to be missed is the Manitou Maine-Anjou sign further down the road. Home to great bloodlines of fullblood and purebred lineage that quickly link back to France. The red and white herd grazing on the hillside is an invitation to learn more about Gary and Sandy Graham’s commitment to the breed. Gary offered his take on the industry with the following words.

I first discovered Maine-Anjou cattle when studying cattle breeds from Europe. The Maines caught my eye as they were advertised as the largest breed in France. It was certainly an unusual name, but I did like their size and colour.

I bought my first halfbloods in 1970, from Rutledges through Harold Biensch who brought in Cunic and Epinal. These halfbloods were from Bysantin and Cunic.

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I went to France in 1972, ‘73, ‘74 and ‘75. The breed was more than I expected. You could only describe them as big gentle cattle. The size of mature animals was amazing. I was completely impressed when a young boy of five or six was told to “go get the bull”. Soon after he came out of the barn leading a huge bull, something never thought of back home. It was a real selling point to a docile breed. Through the years I learned to speak French and in’74 and ‘75, I went on my own without an interpreter, to a farm where the bull Abricot was owned. The herd book would not take people there, that is where I bought the bull Loulou and a female.

Sandy and I went back to France in 2009 for the 100 year anniversary of the breed. We were the only breeders from North America. Lots in attendance from Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere.

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We attended a few cattle shows. What I appreciate about their shows is they are, in my opinion, what a cattle show should be about. It’s not a beauty contest. It’s a cattle breed show where you actually see what an animal really is and what a breed of cattle looks like. The French are proud to take out mature animals, like four and five year old bulls. You definitely see the structure and confirmation along with muscle and breed characteristics; it’s not a fat show like here. Big performance cattle have always played a role in the French shows. This is what we have lost in North America. Nowadays, you could take the halters off four breeds, including Maines and no one would know what they were looking at. It would be a guess at best. I am not alone here, I’ve talked with commercial guys saying the same thing.

North American judges have pushed purebred breeders to believe they have the recipe for the perfect cow. I disagree. I have seen excellent cattle from several breeds outside North America and they do not fit this criteria. Breed characteristics are a good thing, they’re not to be made into one generic type.

North American shows have made Maines one of the smaller breeds in the barns over the years. It’s changing now but almost too late compared to other breeds.

It was personally disheartening for myself and a few others back in the 90s when every judge had a comment regarding fullblood Maines “they’re too big for what we want”, when in fact this is a big breed. That should have never changed. Nowadays you can’t make anything big enough it seems, when bred heifers are pushing 1700 - 1800lbs in other breeds. Maines were left behind thinking smaller was the answer. It never was the answer in raising beef. It basically started when picking small, fine-boned pretty little heifers and not 100% Maines either. To take a big breed and downsize to where you cannot recognize anymore, in my opinion, is nonsense. This was all pushed by the showring and of course one breed in particular that dictated colour and small frame score for too long.

Many people have made the ridiculous statement that foundational import bulls were no good. I cut them off at the knees when I hear this. They refer to calving problems early on, but keep in mind there were problems with every breed from Europe. In the 70’s a commercial cow here was only capable of a 70lb calf, things have changed in all commercial herds. I have used many of these initial import bulls and they work on any set of commercial cows today.

Gary and Cetella in Canada, first cow to be transplanted, dam of 81E.

Manitou Lake stretches out behind some of the Graham herd.

As far as favourite bulls, I am partial to Loulou as I picked him in 1975 from a champion sire and dam. Capone was a good bull, the Buret bull has produced excellent cattle in the past several years. Iabon and Loustic were real good, Cunia was good, not a powerhouse though. Epinal was good, Ivry was excellent, Revival and the 81E group were powerful bulls. Enjoleur and Dada have good qualities. Big bulls like Dollar II, Touchdown, Etula, and Danigo, have been used recently with excellent offspring. There were many excellent cows that produced some super good cattle but the genetics are lost.

What I observed in 2009 was the French are far more concerned with performance at this point than we are. Lots of cattle are on test yearly. Every mouthful is tabulated with weights all the way along. I did see a change though in structure in some animals. This is because they are leaning towards a heavy-muscled animal based on what several breeds are following, which is double-muscled cattle. Something we are not in favour of but to small herds and farms it’s the amount of beef produced from a single unit. However, when you go on the farms you don’t really see that aspect, just super good big powerful beef cattle. What’s not to catch your eye when you look at a herd of these dark cherry red with white cattle. They are the most beautiful cattle in the world.

I will say this, in buying semen since 2009 from many bulls in France, that their EPD’S are accurate, not like in North America. The herd book is on top of it. Every calf is entered in and weights are correct, along with muscle development, bone mass, framescore, calving ability, growth, birthweight, yearling, weaning etc. Their EPD’S are probably as accurate as and EPD can be.

For many years we crossed fullblood Maine bulls on

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Charolais cows. Although this breed is an absolute best in any crossbreeding program, I like the Maine/Char cross for feedlot cattle. You can go either way without losing performance. We had a herd of 3/4, and 7/8 big buckskin Maine cows that were good. I’ve seen excellent Maine/Simmi crosses and of course Angus as well. However, a real good cross for a cow is a Hereford bred to a fullblood bull. The big detriment is in recognizing this breed when calves are sold at auction marts. It's sad actually, because thousands of Maine-cross calves have sold as Simm, Char, Limo, black or red Angus. Only a red and white calf is truly recognized by so many buyers. Yet it is other breeds that end up getting the credit for these excellent calves.

I have stuck with the fullblood cattle because I like them. It is the true representation of the breed. To me, breed characteristics matter, and if the breed characteristics are not to one’s liking then pursue a breed that has those qualities. It amazes me that so many Maine breeders want nothing to do with red and white cattle yet the Shorthorn breeders in the US are definitely hooked onto fullblood genetics and are not embarrassed to have coloured cattle. I am sure I irritate some breeders when I put in our ads “we raise the real Maine-Anjou cattle” but how can one disagree, as the fullblood is 100% with the original characteristics of the breed.

I have been a diehard through thick and thin when people dumped old semen, declaring those coloured cattle are of the past, seeing others jump ship to other breeds only to come back to fullblood bulls. It’s hard to quit a good thing, even when people made light of the fact that I continued to push the fullbloods.

I have semen stored on over 65 fullblood bulls just to keep bloodlines from disappearing. From our herd we have sent embryos and semen several times to Australia, Germany, New Zealand and Brazil plus selling cattle over 30 times to 12 US states. Why? Because these people wanted a DNA’d animal that carried with it a true line of cattle. Only my age will dictate how long I continue.

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