The Parthenaise forms a part of the large population – sometimes called Poitevine or Vendéenne – of wheaten-coloured cattle which traditionally occupied the western part of France, from the
Loire to the
Gironde. It is closely related to the
Maraîchine, the
Nantaise and the extinct Marchoise and Berrichonne, all of which belong to the same group.
Oxen of this type were used mainly for agricultural
draught work in , in the
Saintonge, in
Touraine and in the
Vendée. The cattle were sometimes called Gâtinaises or
Boeufs de Gâtine, so named for the
Gâtine Vendéenne. At the end of their working lives, these oxen were often sent to the area of
Cholet to be fattened for slaughter, and then were known as 'Choletaises'. The name of the breed is due to , who in 1860 identified
Parthenay, in the
département of
Deux-Sèvres, as the principal centre of production. In the second half of the nineteenth century many vineyards were destroyed by
phylloxera and uprooted; the land was turned to
pasture. A number of dairy co-operatives were formed, and the Parthenaise was used to produce a local type of butter, the , which quickly became well known. By the late nineteenth century the stock numbered some 1.1 million head. A
herd-book was established in 1893 or 1894. From that time the population began to decline. This was partly because of the
mechanisation of agriculture, which reduced the need for draught cattle, and partly because of competition from specialised breeds which began to reach the area from other parts of France: the
Maine-Anjou and later the
Charolaise for beef, and the
Normande and later the
Friesian for milk. After the
Second World War the Parthenaise was still well represented in the Vendée and the Gâtine, but was under threat, both from the difficulty of finding bulls that met the stringent regulations for registration for
artificial insemination, and from reduction of herds by
culling to eradicate
bovine tuberculosis. By the 1960s it had become clear that the dual-purpose aim for the breed was no longer viable, and in 1971 the decision was taken to
select for beef production only. Since that time the population has grown consistently: the number of breeding cows rose from in 1990 to in 2008. In 2014 the total breed population was reported at . In 2000 it was decided that the criterion for distinguishing the modern Parthenaise from the more traditional Maraîchine – which also descends from the old Vendéenne grouping – would be the bulls used for reproduction: offspring of bulls born later than Joli-Coeur (born in 1974) would be considered Parthenaises, while offspring of older bulls, of which stocks of semen were still held, could be considered Maraîchines. A genetic study in 2004 found Joli-Coeur and all approved Parthenais bulls born after him to be
homozygous for the mh
double-muscling gene, while bulls used in Maraîchine breeding were
heterozygous or homozygous recessive. The Maraîchine thus represents a traditional form of the Parthenaise. Some cattle have been exported to Belgium, to Ireland, to the Netherlands and to the United Kingdom. == Characteristics ==