Bovine Breeding in Italy

The bovine races Italian are as varied as the soils of the Italy, country of breeding.

History

Origin of the races

Italy was populated by the arrival of multiple populations; each people travelled with the cattle being used for traction of the carriages.

fair Branch and red: raised in the zones where the people Ibère passed, it could be at the origin of the Roman white race which gave the Chianina. Two clear races would be result from crossing between blondes and podolica: the Reggiana and the Modenese.
Branch Gray of the steppes: it arrived with the great migrations which put an end to the Roman Empire. The Ostrogoths, in particular, brought this race come from the steppe of Ukraine. The great race resulting from this branch is the Podolica. It gave a great diversity of races, each area having selected the animals best adapted to its medium: many races of it result.
Branch Black and white red of the Mountains: the alpine fringe of the north of the country is populated naturally by the races of this origin; Razzeta d' Oropa (local name of the Simmental), Pezzata rossa italiana, valdostana pezzata rossa…
brown Branch: resulting from the east of the Mediterranean, this branch was brought by the people of the Mediterranean. They introduced these races into the islands in the Antiquité. They gave original races after centuries of breeding without exogenic introduction of blood: Sarda, Modicana. Is this by Italy that the brown of the Alps became a great race of the mountainous solid mass? It is at the origin of the Griogio alpina.
Boss indicus: this Pakistani zebu would have arrived there are 25 or 30.000 years, accompanying people moving. It would have made stock in the top of the valley of the Po. Crossed with the local races, it gave the race Piemontese.

Antiquity

The Romans were very varied cheese amateurs, but they very quickly adopted cheeses with pressed paste discovered in the the Alps. Produced by the Celtic tribe of the Helvètes, they constituted a food rich and easy to transport and preserve, to dispatch with the legions which kept the borders of the empire.

Transport on the ways was very dependant on the animal haulage. There was a white bovine race of good power which gave the Chianina. Moreover, these white animals were required amongst other things for the sacrifices with Jupiter. They were introduced to this end in Spain. (Blanca Cacereña).

The Middle Ages

Following the introduction of all these races of different origin, the Moyen-âge created a gel of the situation. The bovines travel little in a mountainous country and the breeding in almost complete autarky worked tens of local alternatives. In the the Alps, the races brown and Pie red of the Mountains make wonder; in the plains, the podolica and chianina are good races of feature, and in the central mountains and the south of the country, of the races resulting from the interbreeding of podolica and brown with fawn-coloured dress are created.

Contemporary and modern time

The races of the south of the country, adapted well but not very productive are forsaken by the modernization of the Agriculture. The intensive breeding in plain closes the doors of profitability to the old races. Victims of not planned crossings, they are based in a population which is used only as support with reproductive males with high efficiencies.

This irrefutable fact involves the rarefaction of the local races. In 1985, the state becomes aware of the genetic richness of this potential and creates the registro anagrafico delle populazioni indigenous bovini and gruppo etnici has limited diffusione (register of the races autochtones and ethnicities little diffused) It will work to safeguard the most threatened races. A list is drawn up: Agerolese, Bianca valley padana (Modenese), Burlina, Cabannina, Calvana, Cinisara, Garfagnina, Modicana, Mucca Pisana, Pezzata Rossa d' Oropa, Pinzgau, Pontremolese, Pustertaler, Reggiana, Sarda, Sardo-Modicana and Varzese. They will profit from an ambitious program:

Storage of seed.
Selection of the most representative bulls.
Establishment of a programme of control of consanguinity.
Aide with maintains livestock in pure race granted to the stockbreeders who work with one of the races of the list.

Manpower and production

Notes and references of the article

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