Le Puy du Paillaret

Puy de Paillaret

1 Name: Puy de Paillaret has been set up to stabilise the herd. The breed is favoured for its fertility, longevity and toughness, being Municipality: Picherande well adapted to mountain living (reared for Ownership: Paillaret municipality and union transhumance). Its milk is mainly used for making the Saint-Nectaire and mild blue cheeses. References: The breed has been mixed with the Montbéliardes et GPS Salers since the 1960s. Longitude : 2°49’33.4" E Latitude ; 45°30’49.3"N The Salers breed has been reared since the nineteenth century in the volcanic region of the . Its Access: From Picherande village centre, take the D149 toughness has arisen in part from the regions in which it towards Super-Besse and Chareire. Bypass the hamlet of has been reared, so that it has been possible to adapt it Chareire and continue on to the La Geneste pass, to a variety of living conditions. The quality of its milk has 1361m in height. Leave the car in the car park to the left given rise to 4 Appellation d'Origine cheeses in the of the hut, and the path starts in the meadows. You are : Cantal et Salers, Bleu d'Auvergne, Saint- now on the slopes of the Paillaret. Nectaire and Ambert mild blue. The Salers breed is now in competition with the Montbéliarde on the Paillaret Time needed: you can see Paillaret from the car summer pastures because of its high milk production. It is easily recognised by its long, pointed lyre-shaped horns park and red hair. Almost the whole of the population in Franche- Facility: 1 car park Comté consists of Monbéliardes. The breed is also well established across all of the east, the south-east and the Location of the work: the Paillaret volcanic plug centre of France. The cows produce 30 litres of milk per (Puy) slopes consisting of summer meadows. day and up to 8,000 litres per year. They are white in colour with red legs.

type of soil / area / Description of the location: Technical aspects of the location: vegetation / exposure The site is very windy because of its altitude and the fact that it is a headland area. The Paillaret volcanic plug is a volcano in the Sancy Massif. From its 1721m high summit, the path of the peaks Agricultural activity on the site is fairly constant, with cattle leads to the Puy du Sancy at 1886m in height. On the herds on the summer pasture between June and October. slopes towards the summit of the Puy de Paillaret, lava The slopes of the volcanic plug are broken up by fences. flows and chaotic rock falls are visible. The work must take this agricultural activity into consideration. Since cows are curious by nature, a fence The volcanic plug, Puy, is a treeless mountain covered around the work must be taken into consideration. with short, lush prairie grass. The ground is broken, composed of small blocks of stone (lava stone projecting from the puy) and soft earth. Elements easily Best Point: sink into this type of soil. The site is bathed in sunshine all Local legend about the Salers cows: day long. A few million years ago, God was sitting on his cloud in the company of Saint Peter, contemplating the volcanoes. This mountain is used as summer pasture land and each Long tongues of lava poured out of the huge craters summer a number of farmers take their herd of cattle up which spat fire and flames, sometimes projecting here (assortment of breeds, Salers, Montbéliardes and wonderful chains of red-hot balls which hurtled down the Ferrandaises) to enjoy the lush mountain grass and slopes of the sharp-edged structures . produce high quality milk and make the AOC [Officially God thought this was quite pretty. Saint Peter said to him: named - Appellation d'Origine] Auvergne cheeses, - What a pity, Lord. When that fine volcano has gone out, particularly the St Nectaire and the Ambert mild blue. what will remain of those wonderful colours? The Ferrandaise and Salers are breeds which originated - You're right, Peter, answered the Almighty. here in the Auvergne. They are tough outdoor cattle adapted to the mountain conditions. Then after some thought, he declared: I shall turn the red balls into cows, so that they may stroll at their leisure over The Ferrandaise breed (from Clermont-Ferrand) is a these mountains which I shall coat with lush grass breed of French cattle used for mixed purposes, milk and beef, originating from Puy-de-Dôme. This is a native Auvergne breed, first bred in the nineteenth century. In the past it was used as a draft animal and nowadays is in competition with more productive breeds such as the Prim' Holstein for milk and Charolais crosses for beef. There are now only around 800 breeding cows left and a conservation plan

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 Puy de Paillaret on the right of the picture

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 Vue des pentes du Puy de Paillaret

*In front of Puy du Paillaret, West viewt

 In front of Puy du PAillaret, East view 4

* ferrandaise breed * Different breeds : montbéliardes ont the right, salers on the left

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 View of Puy de Paillaret Localization of the site

6 Localization of the site

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Localization of the site

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