A plea for more Maronesa in "breeding-back"

Maronesa is an awesome breed that I always enjoy looking at. Like all aurochs-like breeds, they have their pros and con’s. To sum them up: 

Con’s: 

- small or at least not large body size 

- short skull shape 

- bulls can get rather short-legged and heavy 

Pros: 

- the coat colour is absolutely identical to that of the European aurochs 

- the sexual dichromatism is nearly always present and well-marked, identical to that of the European aurochs 

- the horns can face inwards in a very aurochs-like manner 

 

Although the number of pros and con’s that come to my mind is the same, I think the benefits of that breed outweigh the undesired traits. That is, for once, because it is very, very rare that a cattle breed has a colour that is truly identical to that of the European aurochs – actually the only other European breed that I know of is the old lineage of Corsican cattle, which is critically endangered if not has already disappeared. It’s impressing to imagine that during roughly 10.000 years of domestication, not a single domestic colour mutation has found its way into the Maronesa genome. But even more important is the fact that the sexual dichromatism is nearly always present and as well-marked as in the European aurochs, because sexual dichromatism is a complex trait that is very difficult to breed for in domestic cattle. I did a post on that, coming to the conclusion that the only way to achieve an authentic dichromatism in “breeding-back” is to rely on a breed that already has it to the desired extent. That would be Maronesa. At least I know of no other breed that has an authentic dichromatism except for the old lineage of Corsican cattle. Also, the horn curvature of some Maronesa is very useful as the horns curve very strongly inwards in an aurochs-like manner. This is very rare even among aurochs-like cattle. Just look at this cow. Overall it has great potential for aurochs-like offspring. The colour is perfectly identical to that of the aurochs, the horns curve inwards in an aurochs-like manner and it has a perfect dichromatism (I assume so because it is the rule in the breed and there are no lightly coloured Maronesa bulls). 

 

Considering the potential of the breed, I think it is dramatically underused in “breeding-back”. The only current project that is using Maronesa is the TaurOs Programme. That is problematic because they use only a small number of Maronesa individuals, they do not execute selective breeding but let the cattle breed for themselves instead, they crossbred them with breeds that are not really beneficial from the perspective of aurochs-likeness (f.e. Maremmana) and the results are modest. And that is although the project would badly need good Maronesa to improve the horn shape of their cattle, as the horns of most TaurOs cattle face outwards, and the sexual dichromatism which is completely absent in some herds (f.e. Milovice). I would highly recommend the Tauros Programme to try to achieve another herd of Maronesa from Portugal, this time better individuals (that have truly inwards-curving horns and a good morphology etc.), also including grown bulls, as bulls have a greater influence on the herds than single cows. 

Also, Maronesa could be beneficial for the Auerrind project in the future. That would depend on how good the dichromatism is going to get with the set of breeds currently used – Maremmana, Sayaguesa, Watussi and Grey cattle have a rather reduced dichromatism, Pajuna can be good in this respect, and in Chianina a dichromatism is possible but masked beneath their colour dilution if present. If it turns out in the future that Auerrind crosses do not have a well-marked dichromatism and inwards-facing horns, including good Maronesa could be beneficial. But as for now it is too early to judge that, as the second-generation crossbreeds are not fully grown yet. 

Maronesa would even be an option for Heck cattle breeders to increase the aurochs-likeness of their cattle. Some Heck cattle breeders don’t like large individuals, or simply like the looks of Heck cattle regardless of their aurochs-likeness. Maronesa would improve the horn shape and sexual dichromatism without altering the looks and body size of Heck cattle dramatically. But Heck cattle would not be my first choice to crossbreed good Maronesa with, to be honest. 

Would TaurUs cattle benefit from Maronesa? I am not sure about that. Many Taurus cattle in the Lippeaue already have inwards-facing horns, and the sexual dichromatism is good in the herds as well – I examined it for the year 2015 using a photo archive, and it turned out that more than 80% of the individuals have the “right” colour. Go here for the post. Apart from that, they have done a good job at creating truly large cattle, Maronesa might diminish that. As most of the achievable aurochs-like traits are already present in the Lippeaue, I do not think that Maronesa would be necessary or, considering their con’s, worth the effort in Taurus cattle. 

 

Another option to seize the potential of Maronesa would be conducting a new, heavily Maronesa-based breeding project. I would use Maronesa, Chianina and Watussi for such a project. Precisely, I would create a number of F2 Maronesa x Chianina, and F2 (Maronesa x Watussi) x Maronesa, and then create an F2 from the combination of both lineages. That would take five breeding generations, and thus roughly ten to 15 years, but the results could be quite qualitative. 

 

I think it would be a shame if Maronesa was not used on a larger scale in “breeding-back”. That is also because it seems that the aurochs-like less-derived Maronesa lineages are endangered. From what I have heard, the sexual dichromatism is not always appreciated by Maronesa breeders and there are already some almost black Maronesa cows. If that trend continues the breed might lose its dichromatism and end up looking like Sayaguesa in that respect. Also, some Maronesa are bred for an extremely massive body with a bulldog face, and many Maronesa cows have corkscrew-like horns (I do not know what is the preference of Maronesa breeders regarding horn shape). The less-derived type of all aurochs-like landraces is endangered because of crossbreeding with more economically productive breeds and/or selection towards a more derived appearance, and so is that of Maronesa, at least because of the latter factor. Thus I really hope that “breeding-back” will seize the potential of that breed, and that the less-derived aurochs-like representatives of Maronesa do not disappear without contributing noticeably to the “breeding-back” gene pool.