Swedish Charolais interest is increasing, not only in Sweden, the export of Charolais animals is substantial. We are proud of the fact that more producers value our consistent selection not only for high performance, but also for functional cows with calving ease.

​

Charolais comes to Sweden in the 60’s

The history of beef breeds in Sweden starts in the 30’s when the first few Angus bulls were imported. On a larger scale, 1946 was the start of beef breeding in Sweden with several imports of Angus cattle. They were followed by Herefords in the early 50’s.

The first Charolais semen came to Sweden in 1959 from Canada. At the time there were several attempts to import Charolais cattle from France, but that was denied for veterinary reasons. Through cooperation with the Danish Charolais breeders, we imported cattle in the beginning of the 60’s. In 1968 we finally imported 75 cattle directly from France followed by another 200 the year after.

At this time, Charolais was a well established breed in Sweden and soon the aim was to be the biggest beef breed in Sweden. Until the 1990’s there was several imports of cattle from Denmark with genes from well known French and British blood lines that improved the Swedish breeding.

​

Modern Swedish Charolais

In the beginning of the 1990’s we started to look at the Canadian Charolais with their easier calving and polled cattle. This was a result of several demands from both the livestock market and political influence. Since easy calving and polled cattle are so popular, all breeds in Sweden work today, more or less, with polled genes and easy calving.

In the beginning of the 90’s Canadian Charolais were introduced in Sweden, through both imported cattle and semen. Through the years we have put hard work into developing the Swedish Charolais into a reliable and productive breed that combines the best from Europe and North America.

Charolais has reached the goal of becoming the most important and market leading beef breed in Sweden. In total there are around 14 000 suckler cows in different beef breed herd books, 6000 of them are Charolais!

75% of the Charolais population is polled – which gives Sweden one of the largest recorded populations of polled Charolais outside North America.

More than 60% of the suckler cows in Sweden have Charolais blood. The commercial beef herds appreciate the combination of high growth rate, efficient feed conversion and extraordinary carcass qualities.