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10 February 2025
Juvenile over-mortality in the Abondance breed: genetics will help control the anomaly
1 April 2025In the heart of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region, in the commune of Irissarry, Bernadette and Beñat, mother and son, passionately run a mixed farm of Blonde d’Aquitaine and dairy ewes. They are the breeders of PATUA, a new QM 2024-2025 bull in the balanced range of the AURIVA catalog. PATUA’s daughters stand out for their balance, breed qualities and excellent calving and suckling abilities. In this article, discover the background and breeding of Bernadette and Beñat, PATUA’s breeders.
Breeding profile
Bernadette joined her husband Pierre on the farm in 1996. As soon as she settled in, she began building a 50-place cow stall, marking the gradual development of the suckling unit. A few years earlier, Pierre had decided to join the Contrôle de Performance system, inspired by his experience with dairy ewes. “This has enabled us to improve the management of the suckling herd, based on precise indicators”, explains Bernadette.
In 2013, their son Beñat joined the farm with the ambition of renovating the sheepfold and increasing the number of sheep. Today, the family-run GAEC is managed by Beñat and Bernadette, with the support of an apprentice for the past four years, representing the equivalent of 2.5 UTH.
GAEC SORHUETA
- 25 mothers Blonde d’Aquitaine
- 100% of calvings from AI
- 2.5 UTH
- SO membership and VA4 performance monitoring
- Trophée National des Sabots d’Or (2016)
- 450 Manech rousse dairy ewes under PDO Ossau-Iraty
- UAA: 59 ha (10 ha maize and the rest grassland)
- A 50-place stall for cows, two sheepfolds (one for adults and one for ewe lambs).
- Production :
- Males sent to breeding station each year (± 2 / year) and grazer production
- Heifers sold for breeding (±2/year) and cows for fattening (± 10/year with an average of 542 kg carcass)
Reproduction and performance: the 100% AI choice
Insemination has always been at the heart of the farm’s strategy: “As a small breeding operation, natural breeding represents a risk: a bad bull can quickly ruin the genetic progress made,” explains Bernadette. With 100% AI, the breeders preserve genetic variability while avoiding the health and management constraints of having a bull on the farm.
Following the same logic, the breeders don’t buy females from outside, as the whole herd comes from renewal: “We keep all the females, with a few exceptions. It’s usually after the first calving that we decide which ones to cull,” explains Beñat.
The breeders spread calving throughout the year, so heat monitoring is constant. Recently, the use of heat detectors has led to a clear improvement: “We have reduced the VILI by 30 days in one year, reaching an average of 380 days. These tools give us efficiency and peace of mind,” adds Bernadette.
Selection without compromise with AI: genetic priorities at GAEC SORHUETA
At GAEC Sorhueta, three priorities guide the selection of the herd: milk production, muscle development and fertility. “We now give priority to volume and meat rather than size, while maintaining homogeneous breed qualities,” explains Beñat.
The breeders remain vigilant about calving ability, even though this criterion is already well established in the herd with an average AVel of 107.3 for maternal ancestry: “We’ve learned from our mistakes and adapted our selection criteria to better meet the needs of the farm. Every decision is crucial to the future of the herd,” explains Beñat. AI has also played a key role in this evolution, with the possibility of choosing bulls aligned with their objectives.
AURIVA’s loyal partners, the breeders work with their technician every year on breeding programs: “We have total confidence in David GONZALES, our AURIVA technician. He supports us in our choices and plans the matings”, Beñat emphasizes. They also regularly produce embryos with the embryo transplant team: “This year, we collected ISCIANE (ARLEQUIN/JONAKI), full sister of JULIANA, granddam of PATUA and emblematic cow of our herd”. The collection was a real success, since of the 18 embryos produced (ISCIANE/ORIGAMI), the partners kept 9 to multiply the strain and 9 were bought by the AURIVA bank to be transferred to other farms and contribute to collective genetic progress.
PATUA: the fruit of an exceptional line from GAEC SORHUETA
The breeders are the parents of PATUA, a son of FUXEEN out of MAITANE (ELDORADO/ARLEQUIN), a very racy little cow, herself a daughter of JULIANA (ARLEQUIN/JONAKI), from one of the best bloodlines on the farm: “A very well-tuned bloodline, racy, docile and with maternal qualities,” confirm the two breeders.
"PATUA was a very good calf, spotted by David, our AURIVA technician. We quickly registered him for the breeding station, where he was bought as soon as he entered the individual inspection at Soual. This is a great reward for us. We'd already seen several of our bulls go through individual testing, but this is the first time one of them has reached this final stage. It makes all the hard work worthwhile.
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