About Our Montbeliarde Cows

The Montbeliarde breed originates in the mountainous Jura region of eastern France and their milk is rich in nutrients and therefore excellent for making cheese. Our first Montbeliarde cows, Maggie and Katie came to the Glebe in the early 90’s and now their daughters and granddaughters are producing the milk which makes Glebe Brethan cheese. Solid and stoic in appearance, they are serene and placid in nature and never in a hurry. We like to give them French names now such as Isabelle, Nicole, or Monique.

Huge and powerful in appearance yet gentle and placid in nature, the Montbeliarde cow is beautiful in shades of dark chestnut with distinctive cream patches. She has a steady gait and inquisitive nature searching the hedgerows for the sweetest grasses and herbs.

Thus she provides the most important ingredient, since the essential feature of our cheese is the quality of the milk. Its taste and character defines the cheese and gives its local distinctiveness.

We can say that each round of cheese develops its own personality and flavour according to which field the cows were grazing and therein lays the essence of this artisan cheese.