
The Braunvieh (
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, "brown cattle") or Swiss Brown is a breed or group of breeds of domestic
cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ...
originating in Switzerland and distributed throughout the Alpine region. It falls within the "Brown Mountain" group of cattle breeds. The Swiss Braunvieh was originally a triple-purpose animal, used for milk production, for meat and for
draught work; the modern Braunvieh is predominantly a
dairy breed.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century cattle of this type were exported to the United States, where they were
selectively bred for dairy qualities only, and developed into a distinct breed, the American
Brown Swiss
The Brown Swiss or American Brown Swiss is an American breed of dairy cattle. It derives from the traditional triple-purpose Braunvieh ("Swiss Brown") of the Alpine region of Europe, but has diverged substantially from it. It was selectively ...
. From about 1960 the Braunvieh was extensively
cross-bred with these American cattle, such that over 75% of the
genetic make-up of the Swiss Braunvieh is from the American breed. Small numbers of the original breed, unaffected by cross-breeding, are registered as Original Schweizer Braunvieh or
Original Braunvieh
The Original Braunvieh is a dual purpose dairy and beef breed from the Switzerland. Braunvieh means "brown cow" and the animals are coloured grey to brown with white ears and muzzle and have horns. These cattle have been maintained as a pure breed, ...
.
History
The Braunvieh derives from the grey-brown mountain cattle raised from
mediaeval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
times in the Swiss
canton of Schwyz
The canton of Schwyz (german: Kanton Schwyz rm, Chantun Sviz; french: Canton de Schwytz; it, Canton Svitto) is a canton in central Switzerland between the Alps in the south, Lake Lucerne to the west and Lake Zürich in the north, centred o ...
in
Central Switzerland
Central Switzerland is the region of the Alpine Foothills geographically the heart and historically the origin of Switzerland, with the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Lucerne and Zug.
Central Switzerland is one of the NUTS 2 St ...
. Documents from the late fourteenth century at the
Monastery of Einsiedeln
Einsiedeln Abbey (german: Kloster Einsiedeln) is a Benedictine Catholic monastery in the village of Einsiedeln in the canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. The abbey is dedicated to Our Lady of the Hermits, in recognition of Meinrad of Einsiedeln, a he ...
record the export of such cattle to
Vorarlberg
Vorarlberg ( , ; gsw, label= Vorarlbergisch, Vorarlbearg, , or ) is the westernmost state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the ...
, now part of Austria. The first known
herd book for a cattle breed was that kept at the monastery for the Braunvieh from 1775 to 1782. A description from 1795 of Schwyzer cattle calls them the largest and finest of the country.
Braunvieh were shown at the
Exposition Universelle of 1855 in Paris, and at the
International Exhibition of 1862 in London.
The Schwyz and two other breeds of Alpine brown cattle were recognised in 1875, and in 1879 the three were combined into a single herd book with the name Schweizerische Braunvieh. In 1897 a breeder's association, the , was founded in
Bünzen, in the
canton of Aargau
Aargau, more formally the Canton of Aargau (german: Kanton Aargau; rm, Chantun Argovia; french: Canton d'Argovie; it, Canton Argovia), is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capit ...
.
Between 1967 and 1998 there was substantial
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 American
Brown Swiss
The Brown Swiss or American Brown Swiss is an American breed of dairy cattle. It derives from the traditional triple-purpose Braunvieh ("Swiss Brown") of the Alpine region of Europe, but has diverged substantially from it. It was selectively ...
with the aim of improving milk yield, physical size, and
udder
An udder is an organ formed of two or four mammary glands on the females of dairy animals and ruminants such as cattle, goats, and sheep. An udder is equivalent to the breast in primates and elephantine pachyderms. The udder is a single mass ...
conformation. In Germany what began as a programme of improvement became in effect a programme of substitution; by 1994 the genetic contribution of the Brown Swiss to the Braunvieh had reached 60%.
The Original Braunvieh
In Switzerland some breeders had continued to breed the traditional type of dual-purpose Braunvieh, and this was formalised as the Schweizer Original Braunvieh in 1993. It is registered in the same herd book as the modern-type Braunvieh, but has different breeding aims. Efforts to preserve the original Braunvieh type had begun in Germany in 1988 with the formation of the . In Italy it is known as the Bruna Italiana Vecchio Ceppo.
Characteristics

The Braunvieh is a uniform brown or grey-brown in colour; the nose is black and encircled by a pale ring. The horns are pale with dark points. Cows weigh 550–750 kg at a
withers
The withers is the ridge between the shoulder blades of an animal, typically a quadruped. In many species, it is the tallest point of the body. In horses and dogs, it is the standard place to measure the animal's height. In contrast, cattle ...
height of 138–152 cm; bulls weigh 1000–1300 kg.
Use
The Braunvieh is a dairy breed. Depending on location, milk production ranges between 7,200 (mountain regions) and 12,000 litres per year.
In other countries
The Braunvieh has given rise to several European cattle breeds in the Alpine region, in Austria, in Germany, in Italy and in Spain, as well as the Brown Swiss in the United States.
Austria
The
Montafon breed from the southern Vorarlberg was of medium weight, muscular, usually brown with a pale dorsal stripe. In 1923 the name was changed to Voralberger Braunvieh.
Italy
The
Bruna Alpina or Bruna Italiana is distributed throughout Italy. Braunvieh were imported from central Switzerland from the sixteenth century, and diffused from the Alpine valleys into the flat country of
Lombardy and the
Veneto
it, Veneto (man) it, Veneta (woman)
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, where they rapidly supplanted the mostly red-coated local breeds, and then further south as far as
Calabria. In 1950 it was still the principal dairy breed of Italy, before the
Frisona Italiana, the Italian
Holstein-Friesian breed, achieved dominance. In
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label= Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label= Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, af ...
, Bruna bulls were used to cover local cows, leading to the creation of the tough and productive
Sardo-Bruna
The Sardo Bruna is a breed of beef cattle from the Italian island of Sardinia. It is one of the 16 minor Italian cattle breeds of limited diffusion recognised and protected by the Ministero delle Politiche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali
The ...
breed.
United States
Braunvieh exported to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
in about 1870 were
bred exclusively for milk production, and developed into the modern American Brown Swiss breed.
References
{{Authority control
Cattle breeds
Cattle breeds originating in Switzerland