Cattle Breeds

Cattle Breeds

There are basically three types of cattle breeds based on production functionality:

1. Dairy-Meat or Dual Purpose breeds

Dairy-meat or dual purpose breeds are those breeds that are bred to have good to excelent dairy production, while maintaining good growth rate, and good muscularity and beef conformation. Excelent dairy-meat breeds include the Braunvieh, Gelbvieh, Tarentaise, Normande, Simmental, Fleckvieh, Grauvieh, Montbeliarde, Rotbunte DP, Meuse-Rhine-Yssel (MRY), Red Poll, Red Angler, Swedish Red, Norwegian Red, Red Danish, and others.

2. Dairy breeds

Dairy breeds are those breeds that are bred to have high dairy production without any selection for growth and muscularity. This includes the Jersey, Brown Swiss, Holstein, Guernsey, Ayrshire, Red and White, and others.

3. Beef breeds

Beef breeds are those breeds that are bred to have excelent growth rate, muscularity and meat quality. This includes the Beefmaster, Angus, Charolaise, Limousine, Piedmontese, Beef Braunvieh, Brangus, Hereford, American Simmental, Salorn, Senepol, Droughtmaster, Belmont Red, Beef Shorthorn, and many others. An extreme beef breed with double muscling is the Belgian Blue.

4. Tropical breeds

Most of the above are temperate breeds. There are also good tropical breeds that are mostly Dairy-Meat or Dual Purpose breeds. This includes the Red Sindhi, Sahiwal, Tharparkar, Carora, Caracu, Criollo (many strains), Boran, Tuli, and many others.

5. Philippine Cattle breed

The Philippine Cattle Breed is the result of the crossing of the Banteng, the Chinese Yellow, the Latin American Criollo and the Indian Zebu. It is phenotypically similar to the Chinese Yellow and the Latin American Criollo but it is becoming more Zebu-like with the infusion from the Brahman. This admixture may explain its good fertility and hardiness.