Braunvieh

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Braunvieh
Other names
  • Bruna Italiana
  • Brune Suisse
  • Schweizerisches Braunvieh
  • Schwyz
  • Schwyzer
  • Swiss Brown
Country of originSwitzerland
Usedairy
Traits
Weight
  • Male:
    average 1050 kg[1]
  • Female:
    average 610 kg[1]
Height
  • Male:
    average 152 cm[1]
  • Female:
    average 135 cm[1]
Notes
originally a triple-purpose breed, for milk, meat and draught
canton of Obwalden

The Braunvieh (

draught work; the modern Braunvieh is predominantly a dairy breed.[4]
: 66 

In the latter part of the nineteenth century cattle of this type were exported to the United States, where they were

cross-bred with these American cattle, such that over 75% of the genetic make-up of the Swiss Braunvieh is from the American breed. Small numbers of the original breed, unaffected by cross-breeding, are registered as Original Schweizer Braunvieh or Original Braunvieh.[3]
: 307 

History

The Braunvieh derives from the grey-brown mountain cattle raised from

herd book for a cattle breed was that kept at the monastery for the Braunvieh from 1775 to 1782.[5]: 718  A description from 1795 of Schwyzer cattle calls them the largest and finest of the country.[6][7]: 130 [5]
: 719 

Braunvieh were shown at the

The Schwyz and two other breeds of Alpine brown cattle were recognised in 1875, and in 1879 the three were combined into a single herd book with the name Schweizerische Braunvieh.

Between 1967 and 1998 there was substantial

Brown Swiss with the aim of improving milk yield, physical size, and udder conformation.[1][9][10]: 11  In Germany what began as a programme of improvement became in effect a programme of substitution; by 1994 the genetic contribution of the Brown Swiss to the Braunvieh had reached 60%.[9]

The Original Braunvieh

In Switzerland some breeders had continued to breed the traditional type of dual-purpose Braunvieh, and this was formalised as the Schweizer Original Braunvieh in 1993.[11] It is registered in the same herd book as the modern-type Braunvieh, but has different breeding aims. Efforts to preserve the original Braunvieh type had begun in Germany in 1988 with the formation of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft zur Erhaltung und Züchtung des Original Braunviehs im Allgäu.[9] In Italy it is known as the Bruna Italiana Vecchio Ceppo.[12]

In other countries

The Braunvieh has given rise to several European cattle breeds in the Alpine region, in Austria, in Germany, in Italy and in Spain, as well as the Brown Swiss in the United States.[5]: 19 

The Montafon of the southern Vorarlberg of Austria was of medium weight, muscular, usually brown with a pale dorsal stripe. In 1923 the name was changed to Voralberger Braunvieh.[13]: 253 

The

Sardo-Bruna.[14]
: 10 

Braunvieh exported to the United States from about 1870 were bred exclusively for milk production, and developed into the modern American Brown Swiss.[10]: 11, 15 

Characteristics

Brown and grey-brown cows at the Simplon Pass

The Braunvieh is a uniform brown or grey-brown in color; the nose is black and encircled by a pale ring. The horns are pale with dark points. Cows weigh some 650–700 kg, with a height at the withers in the range 140–152 cm;[15]: 22  bulls weigh on average 1050 kg, with an average height of 152 cm.[1]

Use

The Braunvieh is a dairy breed. Depending on location, milk production ranges between 7200 (in mountain regions) and 12000 litres per year.[citation needed]

See also

  • Brune (cattle breed)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Breed data sheet: Braunvieh / Switzerland (Cattle). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed November 2021.
  2. .
  3. ^ .
  4. ^ .
  5. ^
  6. ^ Ludwig Wallrath Medicus (1795). Bemerkungen über die Alpen-Wirtschaft auf einer Reise durch die Schweiz (in German). Leipzig: Gräff; cited by Engeler.
  7. ^ Willy Engeler (1947). Das schweizerische Braunvieh: Monographie und Quellenwerk über die Braunviehrasse, ihre Verbreitung, Züchtung und Förderung in Geschichte und Gegenwart (in German). Frauenfeld: Huber.
  8. ^ a b [s.n.] (2012). Geschichte (in German; in English ). Schweizerische Braunvieh. Archived 4 March 2016.
  9. ^ a b c Wolfgang Kustermann (1994). Schwerpunkt - Rinder: Das Original Braunvieh (in German). Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung alter und gefährdeter Haustierrassen. Accessed October 2015.
  10. ^ a b Sophie Maria Rothammer (2011). Genomweite Detektion von Selektionssignaturen in divergent selektierten Rinderpopulationen mit anschließender Identifikation eines möglichen kausalen Gens (doctoral dissertation, in German). Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Accessed October 2015.
  11. ^ [s.n.] (2012). Schweizer Original Braunvieh (in German). Schweizerische Braunvieh. Archived 21 April 2016.
  12. ^ Breed data sheet: Bruna Italiana Vecchio Ceppo/Italy. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed October 2015.
  13. .
  14. ^ . p. 9–11.
  15. ^ Tiergenetische Ressourcen der Schweizer Landwirtschaft (in German). Bern: Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft. Accessed January 2023.