RR), which is awarded to the top 10%, or Reproductive Recommended (in French Reproductrice Recommandée, abbreviated to RRE) awarded to the top 1%. The qualifications aid the identification of superior animals. For males, selection of the best breeders is more complex. The first step is weaning, when the morphology of calves and the known qualities of their parents are used to make an initial selection of animals that receive the qualification Reproductive Hope (in French Reproducteur Espoir, abbreviated to Espoir). Annually in excess of about 700 bull calves are then selected to enter the national evaluation station at , close to Limoges, just after weaning, when they are about seven months old. At Lanaud the animals are grouped together to compare their performance under identical feeding and environmental conditions to the age of 13–14 months. The differences observed between the animals are then related principally to their genetics, which is of interest to breeders because this is what is transmitted to a bull's progeny. After completing evaluation at Lanaud, half of the young bulls are awarded the qualification Reproductive young (in French Reproducteur jeune, abbreviated to RJ) by the HBL. Most of these bulls are intended for natural service, and the best are subjected to evaluations of their progeny. In the same way as for females, the best bulls receive the qualification "Reproductive Recognised" (RR), awarded to the top 10%, or "Reproductive Recommended" (RRE), awarded to the top 1%. In parallel with the Lanaud evaluation station there are three local stations at La Souterraine in the Creuse department of the Limousin region, Saint-Jal in Corrèze, also in the Limousin region, and Naucelle in Aveyron in the south of France. The local stations provide commercial beef producers in their region with bulls of high production potential for use by commercial farmers whose herds are not necessarily registered in the French herd book. The best bulls go to artificial insemination (AI) cooperatives where semen is taken. AI allows the wide distribution of a bulls' genetics to the benefit of more farmers. However, in order to guarantee their genetic qualities, the bulls are subject to a strict selection scheme to increase the accuracy of the different genetic indexes. The best bulls identified at Lanaud are sent to another test station at Naves in Corrèze. Here they are tested more accurately and evaluated for feed conversion efficiency, growth and muscle development. Progeny of the