Hungarian Grey Cattle or Hungarian Steppe Cattle (in Hungarian

Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....

: Magyar szürke szarvasmarha) are an old beef cattle

Beef cattle

Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production . The meat of cattle is known as beef. When raised in a feedlot cattle are known as feeder cattle. Many such feeder cattle are born in cow-calf operations specifically designed to produce beef calves...

 breed from Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

.

The breed belongs to the group of Podolic

Podolia

The region of Podolia is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova, is also a part of Podolia...

 cattle and is very well adapted to extensive pasture systems. It originates from the Hungarian lowlands.

Characteristics

Hungarian Grey cattle are slender and tall. The bulls reach a height of 145 to 155 cm and a weight of 800 to 900 kg, the cows 135 to 140 cm and 500 to 600 kg.

The colour ranges from silvery-white to cinereous. Calves are born with reddish-yellow fur. The Hungarian Greys are robust, unpretentious, easy-calving and long-lived. Their horns are directed upward and are long and curved.

History

The breed probably arrived with the 9th century Hungarian immigration from the east to the Hungarian lowlands. In the Middle Ages and early modern times the breed was used as a draught animal but from 1861 has been bred for early maturity and its beef quality, being herded live to the markets of Europe. Nowadays Hungarian Grey cattle are kept mainly as tourist attractions in the Hortobágy National Park

Hortobágy

Hortobágy is both the name of a village in Hajdú-Bihar county and an 800 km² national park in Eastern Hungary, rich with folklore and cultural history. The park, a part of the Alföld , was designated as a national park in 1973 , and elected among the World Heritage sites in 1999...

 and other Hungarian national park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

s. Small herds may be found in a few other places, e.g. Bocfölde

Bocfölde

Bocfölde is a village in Western Hungary. It has a growing commuter community that works in Zalaegerszeg, the county seat and regional industrial center that is located about to the North....

, Western Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. These herds serve as gene bank

Gene bank

Gene banks help preserve genetic material, be it plant or animal. In plants, this could be by freezing cuts from the plant, or stocking the seeds. In animals, this is the freezing of sperm and eggs in zoological freezers until further need. With corals, fragments are taken which are stored in water...

s, due to their reported resistance to cattle diseases which affect more highly bred cattle types. By 1975 there were only 300 cows left in two herds, but numbers have since increased.