page_title: Limousin cattle
section_title: After June 2008
hierarchical_section_title: Limousin cattle / French Limousin Herd Book / Evolution of Herd Book / After June 2008
caption_attribution_description: English: Schematic of French Limousin Herd Book for period July 2008 and later
context_page_description: The Limousin, French: Limousine, is a French breed of beef cattle from the Limousin and Marche regions of France. It was formerly used mainly as a draught animal, but in modern times is reared for beef. A herd book was established in France in 1886. With the mechanisation of agriculture in the twentieth century, numbers declined. In the 1960s there were still more than 250 000 head, but the future of the breed was not clear; it was proposed that it be merged with the other blonde draught breeds of south-western France – the Blonde des Pyrénées, the Blonde de Quercy and the Garonnaise – to form the new Blonde d'Aquitaine. Instead, a breeders' association was formed; new importance was given to extensive management, to performance recording and to exports. In the twenty-first century the Limousin is the second-most numerous beef breed in France after the Charolais. It is a world breed, raised in about eighty countries round the world, many of which have breed associations.
context_section_description: EU legislation allowed a supplementary section (section annexe in French) to be used to introduce genetics into existing breeds from other breeds in a grading up process aimed at "progressive improvement". According to the legislation, only females whose mother and maternal grandmother entered in a supplementary section, and whose father and two grandfathers are entered in the main section, can be regarded as purebred and entered in the main section of a herd book. Although this appears to be a simple two-stage grading up process, base females that start a new grading up line were also required by EU legislation to "be judged to conform to the breed standard". Since 2007, EU legislation allowed base animals to be males but infusion of their genetics into the main section is still only possible through their female progeny.
  The restructured French Herd Book is described as having a third section called certified purebred (race pure certifié in French) intermediate between the first two for recording animals that do not comply with the breed standard (for example incorrectly coloured hair in certain places), have double muscling genes, or are polled. Limousins imported into France that comply with Council Directive 2009/157 are also recorded in sub-class 2 (sous-classe 2 in French) of the certified purebred class because they do not comply with the French HBL requirement of being Full French.
  Base animals selected for the two-stage grading up process to any EU herd book purebred class require a minimum of 3/4 Limousin content. Graded up females using the two-stage process then become eligible for entry into the main section of all EU herd book purebred classes as initial registration (or T.I.) Limousins when they reach 15/16 Limousin content. They are then legally identified as Limousin (i.e. 100% Limousin) – the breed code 34 often substitutes for the word Limousin in French discussions and reports on cattle breeding.
  Only the Certified Purebred sub-class 2 and Registered Purebred class are identified as Limousin in France because cattle of non-Limousin origin had been introduced into the supplementary section of the Pureblood class. The growth and spread of the Limousin breed in France since the early 1980s meant that a past practice of selecting a base female on appearance alone was no longer a guarantee of its breed origin because of the potential for "crossing absorption". Base females inadvertently assessed as Limousin and recorded as T.I. animals in the main section of the Pureblood class included Parthenais and Charolais, which were presumably the source of the double-muscling genes found in the French Limousin Pureblood population. In 2008, the double muscling gene had been found in 3% of active bulls in France.
  Currently, only cattle recorded in the French Limousin Certified Purebred sub-class 2 and Registered Purebred class satisfy the requirements of EU law on herd books and can be transferred as Limousins, including indirectly through their genetics (for example semen and embryos), to other EU countries and recorded in the respective herd books. Outside of the EU, the rules and regulations of Limousin breed associations do not yet differentiate between the French Pureblood and Purebred classes, with the Pureblood class remaining the origin of, and standard for, the purest form of Limousin.
  Since the 1960s and until 2008, the French Pureblood class defined the standard against which Limousins throughout the world were measured. Although it would seem appropriate to preserve the French Limousin Herd Book's integrity as the international Limousin breed standard by preventing the EU-mandated entry of animals that do not meet the Full French standard, restrictions to such entries remain forbidden under EU law and subsequent interpretations by the European Court of Justice.
  Immediately prior to the restructuring of the French Limousin Herd Book in 2008, French breeders had two months to nominate the class (Pureblood or Purebred) in which they wanted their cattle to be registered. Pureblood cattle have higher busines
caption: French Limousin Herd Book after June 2008.[34]
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