1.10: Finding Parisien (Friday, August 5, 1966)

(From Chp. 1 ~ 1966, titled "Foundation Work," in a book begun several years ago by SMSmith to document the early history of SBL and Simmental in North America.)

The next 5 days were a whirlwind of activity. Back in Paris by Tuesday morning, August 2, Travers sought out more information on promising herd sites. Both the Swiss cattle people and Canadian Embassy officials directed him to the Pie Rouge (French Simmental) Herd Book at Dijon, France, so by 3 P.M. Tuesday, Travers was in Dijon where the Pie Rouge Cattle Registry people undertook to arrange a tour for the following morning.

There in Dijon at the Herd Registry, Wayne Malmberg, the first Charolais importer, and Ray Woodward, "one of the best Genetists in the U.S." caught up with Travers via telephone. Malmberg and Woodward were in France buying Charolais cattle, but as they had attempted some ground work on the Simmental cattle for Travers, they were interested in meeting him for the Dijon tour along with some of the S.E.P.A men (Societe d'Exportation de Produits Agricoles) of their acquaintance. They recommended tour sites as well. Thus, the next morning (Wednesday, August 3), 2 cars of "Good top men" began a Pie Rouge tour. They travelled 500 miles seeing "good cattle" all along the way. They landed back at Nevers, France that night where Malmberg and Woodward had been staying.

Next day, Thursday, August 4, before Malmberg and Woodward left for Canada, Travers was taken to see some "good Charolais cattle." But by the end of Thursday, Travers still had not seen the Simmental bull calf he was looking for. In the meantime, the Pie Rouge Association secretary had been searching the Association's records to find more unvaccinated cattle of the type Travers desired. The S.E.P.A. men too were making more contacts and on Friday morning, August 5, Travers finally saw the bull he wanted.

Travers’ letter home (Sunday, August 7) does not express his impressions of the 3 unvaccinated bull-calves he selected that Friday, August 5th, but the S.E.P.A. document dated 6 August 1966 shows his first choice as Parisien (No 15.891 c 982, born 16 February 1966), with a farm price of 17.000 Fr. Two alternate choices were required in the event that Parisien failed the health tests. The first alternative, Orkan, was from the Langenieux farm; the second, Oranais, from the Roger farm. First-choice Parisien was from the Henri Rossin farm (C 982) at Saint-Appolinaire, Cote d’Or, only five miles from the Herd Book Office of the Pie Rouge at Dijon.

With the S.E.P.A. documents signed, the animals with their dams were set to enter the requisite testing area on Monday, August 8, 1966, the deadline given by the Canada Department of Agriculture. Travers had beaten the deadline by one day, a Sunday.

First, would came the “on-farm” test and 30-day quarantine. Passing those tests Parisien would be moved on to the quarantine station at Brest, France for more tests and another 30-day quarantine under Canadian control. Passing those tests, Parisien (along with all the Canadian-bound Charolais imports) would be placed on a ship bound for Canada’s quarantine facility at Grosse-Île, Quebec, an island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

Things were now in process.