About Tarentaise Cattle

Tarentaise cattle are from the rugged Savoie region of France.

In the early 1970s, Dr. Ray Woodward of Miles City, Montana, was director of the beef program for American Breeders Service. Woodward was looking for a breed that would work on commercial cows in the U.S. while retaining milking ability and, most importantly, avoid the calving and fertility problems of the then known exotics. He found the answer with Tarentaise cattle.

The first Tarentaise bull calf arrived at a Canadian quarantine station in 1972. His name was Alpin, he weighed 1650 pounds at 30 months, and he generated so much excitement and semen sales that soon after the Canadian Tarentaise Association formed. In 1973, the American Tarentaise Association was formed.