Bleue du Nord
The Bleue du Nord is a French breed of dual-purpose cattle from the former region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais in the north-east of the country, on the border with Belgium. It shares the origins of the Belgian Blue, but unlike that breed is selectively bred both for meat and for dairy use. The double-muscling characteristic of the Belgian Blue, caused by a genetic myostatin deficiency, is present also in the Bleue du Nord, but to a limited and controlled extent. History Like many European breeds, the Bleue du Nord derives from cross-breeding of local dairy stock with animals of the Durham breed – what would later be called the Shorthorn – imported from Britain. From about 1850, in the historic region of Hainaut on the border between France and Belgium, the Durham was crossed with dairy cattle of Dutch Friesian type with the aim of combining the growth rate of the former with the dairy qualities of the latter. Breeding was initially directed towards dairy use. Both the Bleue du Nord and the Belgian Blue descend from this stock. By the end of the nineteenth century the Bleue du Nord was widespread in the region. Numbers fell drastically during the First World