Is Sayaguesa the ultimate "breeding-back" breed?

Sayaguesa is used in all three major “breeding-back” projects (Taurus cattle, Tauros cattle and Auerrind cattle) and the influence of the breed in the Lippeaue for example is over 50% on average. Sayaguesa is used that commonly because it simply produced qualitative results from the “breeding-back” perspective. Can we even go so far to say that it is the ultimate “breeding-back” breed? Let’s analyse this.

At first I go over the positive traits of this beautiful breed and what makes them valuable for “breeding-back”, then I have a look at the downsides of Sayaguesa and form a conclusion.

 

The useful traits of Sayaguesa are:

 

-) Sayaguesa can grow very large

 

Some Sayaguesa bulls reach 170 cm at withers height. Dona-Urraca, the Sayaguesa cow that produced a lot of great individuals in the Lippeaue, was very large as well. I stood next to her in 2013 and she must have at least 155 cm tall, probably larger. Sayaguesa is a large breed in general, only slightly smaller than the average of Chianina. Considering that many other very aurochs-like breeds, like Pajuna, Maronesa or Lidia, are on the smaller side, that is very valuable.

 

-) Sayaguesa have an aurochs-like morphology

 

Sayaguesa have a great morphology, with a very large hump and long legs. I have not yet seen a complete Sayaguesa skeleton, but I suspect the processus spinosi are as tall as in the aurochs in many individuals. That’s a not very common trait even among less-derived breeds.

 

-) The horn curvature is useful to very useful in many individuals

 

It is true that many Sayaguesa cows have the horn tips curving outwards, but only after a clear inwards-curve and the horns always face forwards. While the lateral horn orientation is not rarely too low in the breed, some have a perfect primigenius spiral. This is rare in most breeds, and therefore again very valuable.

 

-) They have no domestic colour dilution alleles

 

The “colour genes” of Sayaguesa must be identical to that of the aurochs, as they have no apparent domestic mutations like roan, melanism, erythrism, colour dilutions et cetera. An exception are individuals that have white spots. The dimorphism is something I regard as a different story, because it likely has a different genetic make-up rather than simple “colour genes”.

 

-) They have an elongate skull

 

Sayaguesa have a very aurochs-like skull. In the Lippeaue I once saw the skull of a Sayaguesa cow and it looked virtually identical to that of the Sassenberg cow. The skull is elongate, the snout straight or slightly concave and the orbital bosses well-developed (in the cows, the difference between wild and domestic are more recognizable in the bulls in this trait).

 

Now let’s look at the downsides:

 

-) The sexual dichromatism is almost completely absent

 

Sayaguesa cows are basically bull-coloured with a brownish tint, or very dark brown. That means that the sexual dichromatism is almost completely absent or very reduced. Some Alistana-Sanabresa-influenced Sayaguesa cows have the “right” colour in being reddish brown, but bulls from the same herds may have a saddle.

 

-) The horns are not very large

 

Most Spanish breeds do not have large or huge horns, and Sayaguesa is no exception. While the horns would probably fit Holocene aurochs specimen such as the Himmelev or Prejlerup aurochs in volume, they certainly need more size to match aurochs that had not been influenced by human influences such as hunting and hybridization with cattle.

 

So we see that Sayaguesa has way more positive than negative traits in terms of usefulness for “breeding-back”, and its positive traits are often are very valuable because they are rare among aurochs-like breeds. There are some more negative traits such as a long dewlap or the enlarged intestinum, but including them here would not be useful as these traits also apply to 90% of taurine breeds or more.

My conclusion therefore is: Yes, I think Sayaguesa is currently the most useful breed to be used in “breeding-back” that is not the result of a “breeding-back” project itself. And all current projects rely on this breed to a large extent, which is very positive. The results also speak for themselves – Sayaguesa is a great breed for “breeding-back”.

 

And because it is always fun to dream about more breeding projects, here my idea for a Sayaguesa-project that tries to breed out the few negative traits of Sayaguesa and at the same time keeping the number of new undesired traits as low as possible:

 

First two to four generations: ((Sayaguesa x Watussi) F2 x Sayaguesa) F2

 

Sayaguesa x Maronesa F2

 

Sayaguesa x Lidia F2

 

Sayaguesa x Chianina F2

 

Sixth generation:

 

(Sayaguesa-Watussi crosses x Sayaguesa-Maronesa crosses) x F2

 

(Sayaguesa-Lidia crosses x Sayaguesa-Chianina crosses) x F2

 

Eights generation:

 

Both lineages combined and an F2 from that.

 

What is your favourite "breeding-back" project/breed/lineage/herd?

I have several posts in preparation at the moment, but for today, I want to ask my readers a question. Which one is your favourite "breeding-back" project, or breed, lineage or herd, and why? 

I personally can't decide because there is so much wonderful potential in all of the herds, each time in a different way. 

Let me know what your favourites are in the comments!

I have a Facebook page now

I did not post much here recently (mostly because I am busy finishing my book on "breeding-back"), but I have a lot of posts in preparation. Meanwhile, you can take a look at my new facebook page "Daniel Foidl Paleoart and Breeding-back". I post most of my recent (and also older) artworks there, mostly dinosaur-related but I will also upload aurochs-related artworks and maybe also other content to the page. I'm looking forward to see you there, thanks!

Let's appreciate Heck cattle for a moment

Heck cattle usually receives a lot of negative PR, so I felt motivated to write a blog post on what is positive about this breed in “breeding-back”. So let’s take the “the glass is half-full” approach today and appreciate what is useful about this breed in the endeavour of ecologically replacing the aurochs.

 

-) The very dense, insulating and efficient winter coat

 

Heck cattle are very well-suited for the climate of Central and Northern Europe and grow a very dense, shaggy and insulating winter coat. This is not exclusive to Heck cattle, but this trait makes them very useful for an ecologic replacement of the extinct aurochs.

 

-) Some herds have a virtually perfectly aurochs-like colour

 

Herds such as the Hellabrunn herd in Munich, or the Neanderthal lineage, is virtually or completely devoid of mutated colour alleles and also has a well-marked colour dimorphism (with exceptions). Among aurochs-like breeds in general, only Maronesa and the old lineage of Corsicana have a colour that is always identical to that of the aurochs. Pajuna and a number of other breeds might be as good as the good Heck herds in this respect.

 

-) Descending from robust and hardy breeds, they are well-suited for their ecological job

 

This is not exclusive to Heck cattle, obviously, but they are robust and hardy and thrive well in Central and Northern Europe, and they probably would do so in Southern Europe as well. This makes it one of many breeds that are useful for restoring the ecological function of Bos primigenius/taurus in the wild.

 

-) Some lineages have very large horns of a useful curvature

 

Most aurochs-like breeds lack an aurochs-like horn volume. This is also true of many Heck cattle, but there is a growing number of Heck cattle that have a truly impressive horn volume. There is the Neanderthal lineage, the Bayerischer Wald lineage and of course those of the Steinberg/Wörth lineage. There are also single individuals in other herds that have a monstrous horn volume. The fact that there are Heck cattle with very large and thick horns is great for “breeding-back”, because you get the same benefit as from crossing-in Watussi without the indicine influence on morphology and winter coat.

Also, the curvature of the horns of those Heck cattle lineages is usually more useful than in Watussi or Texas Longhorn (the latter would have to be imported, which would be even more effortful).

 

-) Heck cattle are easily available

 

While most less-derived breeds are endangered, the most aurochs-like lineages even highly endangered, Heck cattle are comparably numerous and widespread among European countries.

 

-) Their behaviour is mostly unproblematic

 

Despite what is claimed in tabloids based on a single incident, Heck cattle are mostly easy to handle. They are not overly nervous or aggressive even when being confined, with a few exceptions, and are nowhere nearly as problematic in behaviour as Spanish fighting cattle for example. Again, this is not exclusive to Heck cattle but it is good that they are mostly easy to handle.

 

So all in all I think that Heck cattle is a useful breed for “breeding-back”, single individuals or herds even very useful. But of course the breed also has some deficiencies, like any breed, that would need to be fixed if the breed aims to be a perfect morphological copy of the aurochs. Many breeders like the specific Heck cattle phenotype and I can understand that; I think that crossing in some good Maronesa would complement Heck cattle very well in terms of horn shape without altering their typical morphology/appearance too much. As for much larger, more elegant animals, we have Taurus cattle due to the crossing with Chianina and Sayaguesa. What is also positive is that Heck and Taurus are not closed gene pools but there is continuous gene flow from Taurus into Heck, so that the breed is slowly but steadily getting larger and more aurochs-like.