Belgian White Blue

The history

A Belgian White Blue is a cow with excessive muscle development. The BWB breed originated from a cross between Shorthorns and Durhams. This breed distinguishes two types, namely the meat type and the dual purpose type. 

The meat type is a beef cow that was bred after World War II because of the surplus of milk and a shortage of meat at the time. The dual-purpose type was bred for meat and milk, which has now mainly become a meat breed thanks to the fine muscle fibers.

 

Appearance

The head of a BWB cow is relatively small compared to the rest of the body. The animal is heavily built with little cover fat and well-growing gluteal muscles. The hair of the BWB cow is thick, in heifers it is almost woolly. This breed has different color varieties, namely completely white, white-black and white-blue to blue.
 

Developments worldwide

The extraordinary ability for crossbreeding and the exceptional quality of the BWB offspring are driving an increasing demand for proven sires worldwide.

 

Partly due to the fall in the milk price and the introduction of the SEUROP classification system, the popularity of the BWB variety has increased. In many countries, studies based on the cross between BWB bulls and Holstein cows (and also local dairy breeds) generally demonstrate the superiority of the BWB cross calves.

 

Furthermore, the survival rate of the crossbred calves, average daily gain, calving ease and feed efficiency are also favorable for the BWB breed.

On the market, the high carcass quality of the BWB cross-bred calves appears to have an important added value when purchasing the calves, which can amount to €200 per calf in Belgium, France, Italy and Spain, for example.