The Meuse-Rhine-Issel or Meuse-Rhine-Yssel ( nl, Maas-Rijn-IJssel, italic=no) is a Dutch

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

of dual-purpose cattle, reared both for

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

and for milk. It falls within the Lowland-Pied group of North European cattle; it is red-pied, and of medium-large size.

History

The Meuse-Rhine-Issel developed principally in two areas of Holland: the eastern part of the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

Noord-Brabant North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the ...

in the southern part of the country, where the rivers

Meuse The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...

and

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

flow; and the area of the river

IJssel The IJssel (; nds-nl, Iessel(t) ) is a Dutch distributary of the river Rhine that flows northward and ultimately discharges into the IJsselmeer (before the 1932 completion of the Afsluitdijk known as the Zuiderzee), a North Sea natural harbour ...

in the east, mainly in

Salland Salland (Low Saxon: ''Sallaand'') is a historical dominion in the west and north of the present Dutch province of Overijssel. Nowadays Salland is usually used to indicate a region corresponding to the part of the former dominion more or less to th ...

and

Twente Twente ( nl, Twente , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel. Twente is most likely named after the Tuihanti or Tvihanti, a Germ ...

in the province of

Overijssel Overijssel (, ; nds, Oaveriessel ; german: Oberyssel) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the eastern part of the country. The province's name translates to "across the IJssel", from the perspective of the ...

, but extending southwards into the

Achterhoek The Achterhoek (; Dutch Low Saxon: ''Achterhook'') is a cultural region in the Eastern Netherlands. Its name (meaning "rear-corner") is geographically appropriate because the area lies in the easternmost part of the province of Gelderland and ther ...

Gelderland Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...

and northwards into the province of

Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Nov ...

. It is named for the three rivers. It was registered in the

herd-book A breed registry, also known as a herdbook, studbook or register, in animal husbandry and the hobby of animal fancy, is an official list of animals within a specific breed whose parents are known. Animals are usually registered by their breeders ...

of the from 1874; it was recognised as a breed in 1905, and a separate herd-book was started. Numbers are in steep decline: in the 1970s there were more than half a million of the cattle, representing approximately a quarter of the total number of dairy cattle in the Netherlands; numbers fell to in 1999 and to in 2004. In 2021 the total population reported to

DAD-IS DAD-IS is the acronym of the worldwide Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, within the FAO's management of animal genetic resources programme.Domestic Animal Diversity Infor ...

was 9938. Over doses of

semen Semen, also known as seminal fluid, is an organic bodily fluid created to contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads (sexual glands) and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize the female ovum. Semen i ...

are kept in cryo-conservation; they represent almost 250 bulls, of which about one-fifth are from before 1980. In the twentieth century the Meuse-Rhine-Issel was one of the five breeds approved for

cross-breeding A crossbreed is an organism with purebred parents of two different breeds, varieties, or populations. ''Crossbreeding'', sometimes called "designer crossbreeding", is the process of breeding such an organism, While crossbreeding is used to main ...

with the British

Dairy Shorthorn The Dairy Shorthorn is a British breed of dairy cattle. It derives from the Shorthorn cattle of Tees-side, in the North Riding of Yorkshire and in Northumbria (now divided between County Durham and Northumberland) in north-eastern England. The ...

, leading to the development of the Blended Red-and-White Shorthorn and the virtual disappearance of the traditional Shorthorn breed. The

Dutch Improved Red Pied The Dutch Improved Red Pied, nl, Verbeterd Roodbont, italic=no, is a recentlydeveloped Dutch breed of beef cattle. It derives from the dual-purpose Meuse-Rhine-Issel breed, and is characterised by a high incidence of the double-muscling gene. A ...

(Dutch: Verbeterd Roodbont Vleesras) is a modern meat breed derived from dual-purpose Meuse-Rhine-Issel stock. The Brandrood IJsellvee is a modern breed which preserves the old colouring of the Meuse-Rhine-Issel, dark red with little white.

Characteristics

The Meuse-Rhine-Issel falls within the Lowland-Pied group of North European cattle; it is red-pied, and of medium-large size.

References

{{reflist, refs= Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007)
List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources
annex t
''The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture''
Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. {{ISBN, 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020. Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016)
''Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding''
(sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. {{ISBN, 9781780647944. .n.(26 June 2020)
Rassenlijst Nederlandse landbouwhuisdierrassen
(in Dutch). Wageningen: Centrum voor Genetische Bronnen Nederland. Accessed May 2022. Yvette de Haas, Rita Hoving-Bolink, Myrthe Maurice-van Eijndhoven, Debbie Bohte-Wilhelmus, Henk Sulkers, Sipke-Joost Hiemstra (2009)
MRIJ breed assessment
Wageningen: Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands = Centrum voor Genetische Bronnen Nederland. Accessed May 2022. Henri Woelders, Ina Hulsegge, Henk Sulkers, Rita Hoving, Sipke-Joost Hiemstra (2009)
Cryoconservation of cattle breeds in The Netherlands
Wageningen: Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands = Centrum voor Genetische Bronnen Nederland. Accessed May 2022. Breed data sheet: Maas-Rijn-IJssel / Netherlands (Cattle)
Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed May 2022. D.S. Buchanan and J.A. Lenstra (2015). Breeds of Cattle. In: Dorian J. Garrick, Anatoly Ruvinsky (editors) (2015). ''The Genetics of Cattle'', second edition. Wallingford: CABI. {{ISBN, 9781780642215, pages 33–66. Sipke Joost Hiemstra, Yvette de Haas, Asko Mäki-Tanila, Gustavo Gandini (editors) (2010)
''Local cattle breeds in Europe: Development of policies and strategies for self-sustaining breeds''
Wageningen Academic. {{isbn, 9789086866977. {{doi, 10.3921/9789086866977. Accessed May 2022.
EuReCa. Accessed May 2022. Marleen Felius (1995)
''Cattle Breeds: An Encyclopedia''
Doetinchem, Netherlands: Misset. {{ISBN, 9789054390176. Maas-Rijn-IJsselvee (MRIJ)
(in Dutch). Wageningen: Stichting Zeldzame Huisdierrassen. Accessed May 2022. Dairy cattle breeds