Pustertal Pied Cattle are a rare cattle breed from the Pustertal

Pustertal

The Puster Valley is a valley in the Alps that runs in an east-west direction between Lienz in Tyrol, Austria and Mühlbach near Brixen in South Tyrol, Italy...

 (or Puster valley) in the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 province of South Tyrol

South Tyrol

South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...

.

Origin

The breed was developed in the Pustertal and its side valleys by crossing Swiss

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 Herens cattle with the local breed. In the nineteenth century some breeders crossed in Pinzgau cattle

Pinzgau Cattle

Pinzgauer Cattle are a dual purpose cattle breed from the Pinzgau region of the federal state of Salzburg in Austria. They are distinctively coloured, with chestnut brown sides and white back and underside. They can be naturally polled...

. After the ending of inspection for bull licensing through a Decree of the Agrarian Inspectorate 1927 the cattle breed collapsed. Only since 1984 has importance again been attached to the breeding of these cattle.

Characteristics

The animals are basically white with chestnut-brown to light brown or black plaques on the flanks that dissolve into small spots at the margins. They have short spreading or forward pointing horns. The cows weigh 500–650 kg and average 130 cm tall at the withers, the bulls 800–900 kg and about 140 cm tall. The breed is used mostly for beef production as suckler cows. Only a few cows are milked.

Population

Today the breed is reared in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, and Italy and the population has stabilized, albeit at a low level. From only a few breeding females in the 1980s numbers had risen to 610 breeding females and about 30 bulls in 2002.

External links

• Pustertaler from Munich (from the München Grub website).
• EAAP breed description with photographs
• Photo gallery