The ROUGE DE L’OUEST is the result of crossbreeding between local breeds in the West of France and English rams. A breed in its own right for many years, the ROUGE DE L’OUEST combines both breeding qualities and good meat qualities.

- Breeding qualities – the ROUGE DE L’OUEST ewe produces 2 lambs per season with an average prolificacy of 1.766 It is very maternal and consequently rears its lambs well.

- Meat qualities – It is a breed that for 20 years has been selectedon suitability for meat production while maintaining its breeding qualities. It produces long and thick lambs without excess fat.

- A fast rate of growth of the lambs – The average daily weight gain between 30 and 70 days is in the order of 300g for male (twin) lambs and the average weight of lambs at 70 days is 28.1kg.

Because of its fine bone structure, the ROUGE DE L’OUEST has no lambing problems and its meat yield is above 50%.

The demand for females is high. Therefore, it is advisable to set up a reservation contract with GEODE even before they are born.

On the male line a rigorous breeding programme is carried out on its meat production qualities, where 150 rams are selected and brought into the ram evaluation center every year. The best 10 are tested on the ‘Meat Quality’ of their progeny to establish the top « Improver rams » which will be used collectively by Artificial Insemination to improve the conformation of the breed.

On the female line, the best ewes « Mères à Béliers » ( mothers of rams) and « Mères à Agnelles » (mothers of ewe lambs) are mated by AI with the best males from strong maternal lines in order to improve productivity.

The ROUGE DE L’OUEST ewe is sought after not only because of its breeding qualities but also to be used in crossbreeding in large scale farming to improve the lamb quality of long limbed hardy breeds and dairy breeds. It passes down its good muscling in crossbreeding to produce lambs graded « U and R» on the ‘EUROP’ grid. The ROUGE DE L’OUEST ram is keen and active all year round, particularly out of season, on breeds which are fertile in all seasons. The ROUGE DE L’OUEST widely used for crossbreeding in France, is present in different European countries and further afield to contribute to the improvement of local breeds and sheep production.