As Rewilding Europe recently announced, 20 Tauros cattle (18 cows, two bulls) have been moved to Velebit, Croatia. They will join a herd of 120 individuals that consist of pure Sayaguesa and Maremmana as well as crosses of Sayaguesa, Maremmana and Tudanca that have been grazing there since 2016. The purebred bulls will be removed in turn if I understand correctly.
You can see photos of the herd here and here.
Based on their looks, the herd might include Maremmana x Sayaguesa, Limia x Maremmana and Pajuna x Maremmana individuals. But that is only a guess. I doubt that these fully grown individuals are fifth-generation. First of all, the Tauros Programme counts the parental generation as first-generation, what means that their second-generation animals are actually the first cross generation. So that means they mean fourth-generation. Also that seems a far stretch for a breeding period of 11 years. Body shape and proportions are OK, they are pretty much the standard we see in Taurus cattle and primitive cattle breeds. So is the skull shape. The horns, however, are not that impressing, as in most Tauros cattle. They are to small and the curvature is not aurochs-like either. What I also noticed is that the cows are mostly pretty dark, what is true for most Tauros cattle. I wonder why. Surely, Sayaguesa contributes dark colour shades in cows but other projects achieve a nice reddish-brown coat colour even in half-Sayaguesas. Maremmana, Limia, Tudanca and Pajuna also have lightly coloured cows. So I wonder why most Tauros cows are that dark.
The Tauros Programme, after 11 years of breeding, now has reached a level of good quantity. They have a total animal count in the three-figure range. What the programme needs is to improve the sexual dichromatism (i.e. achieve more lighter-coloured cows) and to improve the horns in both size and curvature. There are no size measurements for Tauros cattle (at least none that have been published) but the cattle at Keent (NL) do not look large. So they also might want to improve the size of the animals, considering that they are using a number of small breeds (Pajuna, Highland cattle, Maronesa). While selection can improve the sexual dichromatism and if they pay attention on only using bulls with good horns also the horn shape, I doubt that they can achieve the improvement of the horns and body size with the breeds they are currently using. The horn size of many Maremmana (the largest-horned breed they are using) is actually smaller than in the aurochs (see here, for example). Maremmana is also the largest breed they are using, and Maremmana does reach sizes of 170cm and allegedly more, but their Maremmana individuals don't look large (one of their Maremmana bulls was barely larger than the Pajuna bull, and the other one didn't look much taller than the Highland individuals).
Summa summarum, I think the Tauros Programme needs breeds that add large size, truly large horn volume, and also a good horn curvature when starting the quality-building phase otherwise Tauros cattle might end up deficient in terms of horns and body size.
In ten plus years, Taurus is really not better than Heck cattle. The only way to improve overall size is to concentrate on chianina. The only way to improve horn size is to concentrate on watusi. Only use the three breeds of sayaguesa/chianina/watusi until you have overall size and horn size. This is why GroB Rohrheim is so very valuable. It only has those 3 breeds.
ReplyDeleteI guess you mean TaurOs and not TaurUs.
DeleteI really mean both and I really mean 20 plus years. Not much improvement in overall size nor overall horn size nor horn direction nor curvature. Too many breeds involved.
DeleteI really do not want to be so negative and would rather focus on the future. Alvarez may be a remarkable bull. He may solve most of the horn problem in one generation. But he will not be large overall after all he is half watusi. They should be breeding him to multiple pure chianina. Numbers do matter. You can increase your luck by playing the numbers. Please use your valuable voice to increase a few more chianina for alvarez to cover this summer and fall. The possibilities are worth it.
DeleteThat Taurus (notice the U) cattle are not better than Heck cattle is wrong. Taurus cattle are substantially larger and the horn shape is way better, as much as skull shape and proportions. You can have a look at my posts about the Lippeaue population.
DeleteI guess we can argue over the word substantially. They are definitely better. But maybe we can agree that substantially more progress needs to be made. I enjoyed the posts. I still stand on all of my statements that fewer breeds are a better way forward and chianina is the best breed for overall size and that is what Alvarez needs now and in greater numbers. I hope we can agree on that. No offense meant to your Taurus cattle.
DeleteTaurus cows measure between 150-155cm and bulls between 150-170, so they are substantially larger than Heck cattle and I consider this size satisfying. Most Auerrind cattle will be in the same range. By the way, Taurus cattle also only works with three breeds, with the exeption of a few individuals that also have Lidia percentages.
DeleteI think that the 50%Sayaguesa 25%Chianina 25%Watussi will be similar ot the 50%Sayaguesa 25%Chianina 25%Heck, perhaps with larger horns perhaps with a less effective winter coat or with visible watussi traits. It will depend on luck.
Claiming Taurus cattle are not better than Heck cattle is just a plain wrong statement.
DeleteMaybe you misunderstood. I said they were better. But you seem to prefer arguing over the past than to agree to improve the future. Perhaps you believe that numbers don't matter and it's 100% luck. Good luck with that philosophy.
DeleteNumbers and luck go hand in hand. Of course numbers matter. The more individuals, the larger is the chance that there are individuals matching the expectations. The smaller the number, the more luck you need. It's pure logic.
DeleteAs far as I remember, Rew Europe released also some Boskarin cattle in the same site in Velebit. I wonder if those are kept separated from the Tauros or if they had the chance to mix. Boskarin and its siter Podolica from the other side of the Adriatic can produce some stunning animals... Cheers
ReplyDeleteI remember the same about Istrian breed ("Boškarin") and wander what happened with them. Btw. they are pretty big, even biger than rest of (clasic) podolian breeds...
DeleteInteresting news from revive and restore - With great enthusiasm, we are announcing today the birth of a Przewalski’s foal, cloned from a 40-year-old cryopreserved specimen. Formerly extinct in the wild, the Przewalski’s horse (pronounced “shuh-VAL-skee”) has survived for the past 40 years almost entirely in zoos around the world, and all of the surviving horses are related to 12 Przewalski’s horses born in the wild. The colt’s birth revives genetic diversity that had been lost to the world and has now been recovered due to this important partnership between Revive & Restore, ViaGen Equine, and San Diego Zoo Global.
ReplyDeleteHi Daniel.
ReplyDeleteIt has been a long time since I wrote something about the Taurossen in the Kempen ~ Broek area. Because of the 100 ha. as a rule there are 2 areas where the Tauros are, namely on the Kettingdijk and the Loozerheide. I have written a post from the Kettingdijk. Maybe you are interested in it. At the very bottom is the link to Flickr, where all the photos can be seen.
The post about the Loozerheide will follow shortly.
Greetings Gerard
Hi, many thanks for informing me about your post and photos, very interesting! I'm looking forward to the post about the Loozerheide.
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