Translated version of an article published in Le Monde (05.03.2014): http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2014/05/03/la-bbb-vache-xxl_4411054_3244.html

BBB, the XXL cow

The veterinary cuts a large slit on the side of the cow with his scalpel. As he pierces the placenta, blood wells and amniotic fluid splashes on his white coat. Two hooves appear from the steaming cut. Using his foot, he pulls the calf out the cow’s womb with all his strength, staggers a little and lets it go on a thick layer of straw.

The newborn is already quite heavy. Soon, it will weigh close to a ton and will be traded for approximately 3500 euros, as opposed to 1000 euros for an ordinary cow. The Holstein that carried it is that kind of ordinary cow, and they look nothing alike. The calf is very muscular while the cow tall and thin. It is not its biological mother. Its biological mother is actually much fatter and is grazing in another pen.

If the biological mother did not carry it, it is because it is too precious. "We must be careful not to damage it", says Michaël Gallet, breeder of a 150 head livestock in Libramont, in the Belgian Ardennes. It is a Belgian Blue-white (BBB), a breed that has been “made” (“worked on”) decades ago in order to detect muscular hypertrophy. This gene, known as culard, reduces body fat and tenderizes the meat.

Meat breed cows subjected to superovulation

The Belgian breeders have been economically benefiting from this gene since the 1960’s. Only a few BBBs were concerned back then, while today all of the country’s 400 000 Belgian Blue-white carry it. "We have created this breed by systematically mating muscular hypertrophied cattle", enthusiastically explains Philippe Collin, a veterinary in Libramont. "In France, when a cow gave birth to a culard calf, it was slaughtered. Here, on the contrary, we exploited what other regarded as a defect."

Today, Belgian breeders still work on increasing the muscular potential of their livestock by mating the strongest. "In order to give birth to calves which will produce more steaks", explains Pierre Mallieu, secretary general of the Herd Book, the BBB Breeders Association. This eugenic is controlled through various practices of artificial reproduction.

In his Ardennes farm, Michaël Gallet employs one of these techniques. In order to increase the quality and the number of his “meaters” as he called them, he uses superovulation – a technique which consists in stimulating their ovaries. With this process, his cows produce around forty ova a year against twelve naturally.

The purpose? "Multiplying the genetic heritage of a very good cow by making her deliver ten calves at one time", he says with a smile. The ova are transplanted in the

womb of "ordinary cows, surrogates mothers" that will be delivering by cesarean. Born in the fifties in the United States, this method is marginal in Belgium – 1% of birth. Only "the ultramodern breeders, the most avid ones" practice it according to Michaël Gallet.

“The most important is their genital organs”

Artificial insemination is another “meater” reproduction technique. Much more widespread – about 50% of births – it consists in "inseminating the most finest cows with semen from an elite bull", explains Benoït Cassart, founder of Fabroca, a distribution center for bovine semen in Belgium.

Those bulls with disproportionately large musculatures don’t live in cowsheds, but in insemination centers where they produce up to 25 000 doses of semen per year which are then kept in liquid nitrogen below 180 degrees. "The most important part of my cattle is their genital organs. That is how I can increase the profitability of my farm business", underlines Michaël Gallet before putting his plastic-gloved hand in the uterus of one of his surrogate cows in order to check the cervical dilation.

Today, this breed supplies 85% of the beef Belgian market. Even if some consumers find the meat tasteless, a number of countries are interested in it. In December 2013, China ordered more than a thousand doses of semen to inseminate its local cows. Furthermore, in 2013, one hundred embryos have been sent to Namibia in order to increase the muscle mass of the Nguni cattle, a very thin breed.

An economic miracle

What about France? "The BB has been increasing and gaining more and more market shares is recent years", says Laurent Savary, who is in charge of Blanc Bleu de France Association. "There is already more than 25 000 French BB, although less muscular than their Belgians counterpart".

“The muscles of our BBB are hypertrophied, but it’s less obvious. We want to avoid making them appear like bodybuilder cows", continues Laurent Savary. "We also export many Belgian BBB that end their lives in Rungis, near Paris, in local butchers or supermarkets", adds Pierre Mallieu. “The BBB is an economic miracle”.

A controversial miracle. First of all, because of the BBB’s bad reputation. "A Frankenstein’s monster", "a sumo on steroids", "a GMO cow". These are some of the terms springing up on the Internet today. And for a good reason, since the rare pictures of BBBs on the Web, "come from extremist cattle breeder who take part in “Boeuf Gras” competitions, explains an irritated Pierre Mallieu. "They go too far: they increase the consanguinity rates in order to reach totally out-of-proportion muscle structure". According to him, those animals are not ending up on consumers’ plates. "Formula 1 racing cars do not represent the automobile market", says

Michaël Gallet while admitting, one hand on Licorne's enormous rump, to be keen on "nice curves".

The vulnerability of the animal

The cow’s vulnerability is another recurring criticism. Indeed, a well-built animal doesn’t mean a healthy animal. "The BBB suffers from many problems. The weight of its muscles weakens its bones", reminds an indignant Michel Vandenbosch, president of Gaia, a Belgian animal protection group.

André Grevisse, a former BBB breeder who produces now organic meat adds: "when you increase the muscular coefficient of a cow, you diminish its other rustic features, like its breathing capacity and its milk production". It also means that the rib cage, the stomach and the pelvis are crushed by the amount of meat. It represents 80% of a BBB carcass as opposed to 55% of The Charolais.

The BBB is subjected up to 10 cesarean deliveries

This pelvis breadth reduction prevents the BBB from giving birth naturally. "The calf is too fat to go through the cervix", explains Philippe Collin, the vet. That is why ordinary cows from other breeds, like the Hosltein, are surrogate mothers for the BBB calves. And they are subjected up to 10 cesarean deliveries before being sent to the slaughter. The calving of those future “meaters” requires in 95% of the cases a cesarean delivery as opposed to 15% among other bovine breeds. An unnatural practice for the organic breeding representatives.

A caesarean delivery implies a local anesthesia and the use of antibiotics "that can be found as residues in food", according to André Grevisse, the organic meat farmer. Michaël Gallet, the BBB stockbreeder challenges this argument. "It presents no danger to the consumer’s health since medicines naturally disappear in a week".

“An artificially-created” cow

More broadly, for the organic field and the animal protection groups, the use of cesarean delivery proves that the BBB is an artificial cow. "If you let the nature takes its course, this breed will disappear because it is incapable of giving birth without human assistance", denounces Michel Vandenbosch. An opinion Philippe Collin, the veterinary, finds totally dishonest: "In any case, nature no longer exist in a ranch. Except perhaps in the Argentinean Pampa, where the cattle is left on its own".

Standing in front of his barn’s paddocks, Michaël Gallet is throwing, just like a sower, handfuls of “biscuits”, a cereal mix that his cows catch with their tongues. In his view, the consumers increasing demand is largely responsible for this big change in the meat industry. "Twenty years ago, farms were farms, not firms. But today, if you want a viable and cost-effective structure, if you want banks to support you, you

need to provide them with accounting results and be able to guarantee the profitability of your livestock."

Down on his knees, he slips he slips a bottle of milk in the newborn’s half-open mouth. "It’s probably sad to say, but that’s how it is. This breed can’t survive without our care. It has become meat on legs." Behind him, the vet meticulously stitches the cow’s womb from which a trickle of blood is still pouring.