A pretty mahogany coat, a wide rump, long curly hair, a pink muzzle and beautiful lyre-shaped horns… No doubt, the Ovalie cow has everything of a star! Born in 2018, on the borders of Puy-de-Dôme and Cantal, in the town of Saint-Alyre-ès-Montagne, at 1,100 meters above sea level, this docile Salers was designated the face of the Salon de l’agriculture de Paris 2023. A great reward for its young owners, honored with such recognition. “What is happening to us is exceptional! When the Herd Book Salers asked us to present one of our cows, we were far from imagining all that. It’s really very rare in a farming career. There is as much chance of presenting a muse cow at the Paris show as of winning the lottery”, laugh Marine and Michel Van Simmertier, aged 34 and 32 respectively.
However, the atypical career of this young couple did not predestine them to this sudden notoriety. Marine, born in Alsace, first passed through Pas-de-Calais, Haute-Savoie and Allier before settling definitively in Cantal, “a department with character, just as we like it! “.
There, she meets her future husband, Michel, originally from Maux, in Seine-et-Marne. This one in turn decides to settle permanently in the region to devote himself to the breeding of the Salers. “With my parents, we had a vacation home in Allanches, in Cantal. I fell in love with the department and started my agricultural studies. Then I met my wife and I stayed in Auvergne”, summarizes Michel Van Simmertier.
A farm of 80 Salers cows
After several professional experiences, they decided to set up on their own and took over a farm in Saint-Alyre-ès-Montagne (Puy-de-Dôme), in 2018. The couple is now at the head of a breeding of 80 Salers cows, and wouldn’t change his life for anything in the world. ” Are we not good here ? “Launches Marine, pointing to the surrounding mountains covered in snow.
Even if for a few weeks, they feel the pressure mounting. “Being the owner of the muse cow is a lot of investment, recognize the breeders. We are very much in demand from the media. Everyone wants to see Ovalie, take her picture! The local music group Wazoo even wrote a song and shot a music video celebrating them. At the same time, it’s very good, the cow is prepared to see the world,” rejoices Marine.
In the home stretch before going up to Paris, Ovalie is the focus of all attention. “We’ve been preparing for it for months. She has to show herself in her best light,” underlines Marine. But the star will not make the trip alone. The star has just given birth to adorable twins called Utopia and Utopia. A calving that is also exceptional, since double births only happen once in a hundred among the Salers. The fairy tale continues…