The Ukrainian Grey ( uk, Сіра українська порода, ''sira ukrayin'ska'') is an ancient

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

breed of Podolian cattle. It is a hardy breed, and was traditionally used both for meat and for draught power. It is similar to other European steppe cattle breeds such as the Hungarian Grey and the Italian

Podolica The Podolica is a breed of domestic cattle from southern Italy. It belongs to the Podolic group of grey cattle. It is raised in the regions of Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise and Puglia. It was formerly distributed throughout ...

History

The Ukrainian Grey has been shown by studies of microsatellite data to be a very ancient one, as are some other related breeds of Grey Steppe cattle such as the Serbian Steppe. Until the beginning of the twentieth century the Ukrainian Grey was the principal cattle breed of Ukraine. It was hardy, frugal and well adapted to the steppe environment, and was used principally as a

draught animal A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for t ...

; when heavy horses began to replace oxen in agriculture in the nineteenth century, the breed started to decline. A

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 ...

was started in 1935, at which time it represented about 6.4% of the total cattle population in Ukraine. A

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

programme was begun in the 1960s, and two conservation herds were established, one at Polivanovka in

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Dnipropetrovsk Oblast ( uk, Дніпропетро́вська о́бласть, translit=Dnipropetrovska oblast), also referred to as Dnipropetrovshchyna ( uk, Дніпропетро́вщина), is an oblast (province) of central-eastern Ukra ...

and another at

Askania-Nova Askania-Nova ( uk, Асканія-Нова) is a Ukrainian nature reserve located in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine, within the dry Taurida steppe near Oleshky Sands and active member of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme. It is also a resea ...

in Kherson Oblast; in 1982 a small herd of 125 animals was moved from Askania-Nova to Cherga in the Altai Republic. Since 1980 the population reported has usually been approximately head, with a high of in 1990 and a low of about in 2004. In 2007 the

conservation status The conservation status of a group of organisms (for instance, a species) indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservatio ...

of the breed was listed by the

FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

as "critical". In 2011 the total number in three conservation herds was 1188, with 32 bulls and 440 breeding cows. The Ukrainian Grey is included in the

Ark of Taste The Ark of Taste is an international catalogue of endangered heritage foods which is maintained by the global Slow Food movement. The Ark is designed to preserve at-risk foods that are sustainably produced, unique in taste, and part of a distin ...

of the

Slow Food Foundation Slow Food is an organization that promotes local food and traditional cooking. It was founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy in 1986 and has since spread worldwide. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and reg ...

Characteristics

In this primitive breed, both cows and bulls have horns, as well as grey hides which are their namesake.

Use

In the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

era of Ukrainian history, the Ukrainian Grey was much used 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 other breeds. It contributed to the Lebedin, the Red Steppe, and the Ukrainian Simmental. The extinct Malakan breed of Turkey derived from the Ukrainian Grey.

References

Cattle breeds originating in Ukraine {{cattle-stub