the observations by harlan ritchie touched on a few concerns prevalent in the full blood maine breed. calving difficulty, with avg bw of 110, lots of c-sections visible in many herds, a pretty consistent break behind the shoulders, low fertility, ie 80% calves on the ground from natural breeding, an average calf crop of 5-7 calves, high twinning percentage of about 5%, lots of soundness problems, some from being too fat from being shown coupled with their already large size.
in france, in 1971, there were 650,000 total maine's. 200,000 adult cows, 27,600 registered animals, 10,000 annual births, 4800 final registrations (which must be viewed by committee) and 1500 members.
also of note, there was a huge difference in milking ability ranging from a low under 5000 lb milk to over 12,000 /yr with the average being somewhere around 5,550, and good herds around 7500.
atan's dam only produced 5500 lb/lactation. atan was 3150 pounds and stood 64 " as a 3 year old at withers.
good little paper. vainqueur was probably the thickest bull they saw. and............... the breeder of cunia and the owner of cunia's dam, had him.
anybody know anything about Valentin? an extremely thick bull but a calving ease bull. he was 60.5 inches and weighed 3305 and was NOT double muscled. was a little sloppy in his makeup and nowhere near compared to vainqueur.
capone was mentioned and when the guy sold him, he used the proceeds to install an irrigation system. capone may have been a carrier of double muscling. they fed to 1300-1400 lbs at 16-18 months wth the last month on grain.
heifers were bred at 2 years or later.