All breeds
129 breeds so far, best known first. 312 more are on the list to be written.
🇲🇳 MongoliaDzoམཛོ་
A yak-cow hybrid from Tibet and Mongolia, bigger than either parentYak · Dairy
🇮🇩 Indonesia and 5 moreBantengbanṭéng (Javanese/Sundanese)
A wild Southeast Asian ox; its tame form, Bali cattle, runs feral in northern AustraliaBanteng · Beef · Drought-hardy
🇵🇱 Poland and 5 moreAurochs
The wild ancestor of all domestic cattle, extinct since 1627Wild · Long-horned
🇵🇰 Pakistan and 5 moreZebu
Humped, heat-tolerant cattle of South Asia, kept for milk, meat, work and ridingZebu · Dairy · Heat-tolerant
🇳🇱 Netherlands and 5 moreTauros
A breeding-back project building hardy cattle to stand in for the extinct aurochsWild · Grazing · Cold-hardy
🇲🇳 Mongolia and 4 moreYakགཡག་
A shaggy, cold-hardy highland bovine kept across the Himalayas and Tibetan PlateauYak · Triple-purpose · Cold-hardy
🇨🇳 China and 2 moreWild yak
A massive, shaggy wild bovine native to the high plateaux and peaks of the HimalayasYak · Beef · Cold-hardy
🇮🇩 Indonesia and 4 moreBali cattle
A small humped breed from Indonesia, descended from wild banteng, kept for meat and plowing.Banteng · Beef · Disease-resistant
🇮🇳 India and 2 moreIndian aurochs
An extinct wild ancestor of zebu cattle that lived in South Asia until the Stone Age.Wild
🇮🇳 India and 4 moreGayal
A semi-domesticated bovine of the Eastern Himalayas, kept for meat, milk and ceremonyMithun · Beef
🇳🇱 Netherlands and 3 moreHolstein Friesian
A black and white dairy breed kept worldwide, with red and white lines tooTaurine · Dairy
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 5 moreHereford
A red and white beef breed from Herefordshire, England, known for its white face and hardiness.Taurine · Beef · Docile
🇺🇸 United States and 5 moreBrahman
An American beef breed with a hump and grey or red coat, bred from Indian zebu cattleComposite · Beef · Heat-tolerant
🇨🇭 Switzerland and 5 moreSimmental
A large dual-purpose breed from the Swiss Simme valley, red and white with strong growth rates.Taurine · Dual-purpose · Docile
🇫🇷 France and 3 moreCharolaisCharolaise
A large French taurine beef breed from eastern France, white to cream with pink noses and curved horns.Taurine · Beef · Docile
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 2 moreAyrshire
Red-and-white dairy cattle from south-west Scotland, hardy, long-lived and easy calversTaurine · Dairy · Easy calving
🇧🇪 Belgium and 3 moreBelgian BlueBlanc-Bleu Belge / Belgisch Witblauw
A muscular beef breed from Belgium known for its blue-grey coat and double-muscling gene.Taurine · Beef · Docile
🇩🇪 Germany and 3 moreHeck
A German type bred in the 1920s to recreate the extinct aurochsTaurine · Grazing · Cold-hardy
🇺🇸 United StatesTexas Longhorn
American beef cattle, once feral on Texas ranges, with horn spreads beyond 2.4 mTaurine · Beef · Heat-tolerant
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 5 moreShorthorn
A historic British breed from north-east England, kept for milk and meat with red, white or roan coats.Taurine · Dual-purpose · Docile
🇺🇸 United StatesAnkole-Watusi
A large-horned American breed derived from African Sanga cattle, kept for its distinctive horns and hardy build.Sanga · Heritage · Long-horned
🇨🇭 Switzerland and 5 moreBraunvieh
A large Alpine brown dairy breed from Switzerland, known for its strength and high milk yield.Taurine · Dairy · Rich milk
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 4 moreGalloway
A polled black beef breed from south-west Scotland with a thick double coatTaurine · Beef · Cold-hardy
🇮🇹 Italy and 5 moreChianina
A massive white Italian breed known for beef production and historic draught work in Tuscany.Taurine · Beef · Heat-tolerant
🇺🇸 United States and 1 moreBeefalo
A cattle and bison hybrid raised for beef in the United StatesComposite · Beef · Cold-hardy
🇺🇸 United States and 3 moreBrown Swiss
A medium-sized American dairy breed descended from the Alpine Braunvieh, kept for high milk yield and cheese-making.Composite · Dairy · Rich milk
🇭🇺 HungaryHungarian GreyMagyar Szürke
A tall, long-horned Podolic breed from the Hungarian plains, kept for beef and draught work.Taurine · Beef · Marbled beef
🇺🇸 United StatesGuernsey
A fawn dairy breed from Guernsey, its milk tinted gold by beta-caroteneTaurine · Dairy · Docile
🇺🇸 United States and 3 moreDanish RedRød Dansk Malkerace
A red Danish dairy breed, with a modern line and a 1970 lineTaurine · Dairy · Rich milk
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreGir
A humped dairy breed from Gujarat, red and white with long drooping ears and a domed foreheadZebu · Dairy · Heat-tolerant
🇵🇰 Pakistan and 4 moreSahiwal
A heat-tolerant zebu from the Punjab, kept for milk, meat and draught workZebu · Dairy · Heat-tolerant
🇦🇹 Austria and 1 morePinzgauer
Chestnut Austrian cattle with a broad white stripe along the back and bellyTaurine · Triple-purpose
🇮🇪 Ireland and 2 moreDexter
A small Irish dual-purpose breed, usually black or red, kept for milk and beef on poor land.Taurine · Dual-purpose · Thrifty foragers
🇮🇹 Italy and 2 morePiedmontesePiemontese
A white Italian beef breed known for double muscling and premium lean meat.Taurine · Beef · Marbled beef
🇫🇷 France and 2 moreBlonde d'Aquitaine
A big wheat-coated beef breed from south-west France, born of three old draught linesTaurine · Beef
🇺🇸 United States and 5 moreSanta Gertrudis
A red American beef breed created from zebu and European cattle in Texas.Composite · Beef · Heat-tolerant
🇮🇳 India and 3 moreNelore
A large humped beef breed from India, now dominant in Brazil and known for heat tolerance and parasite resistance.Zebu · Beef · Heat-tolerant
🇫🇷 France and 2 moreNormande
A large red-pied French dual-purpose breed, kept for rich milk and marbled beefTaurine · Dual-purpose · Rich milk
🇰🇷 South Korea and 1 moreHanwoo한우
A small, brown taurine breed from Korea, once used for work and now prized for its premium beef.Taurine · Beef · Docile
🇲🇳 Mongolia and 3 moreKalmykКалмыцкая
A compact red beef breed of the old Soviet Union, noted for exceptional toughnessTaurine · Beef · Thrifty foragers
🇩🇪 Germany and 4 moreGerman Black Pied
A dairy breed of the North Sea coast, black and white, smaller than the HolsteinTaurine · Dairy · Long-lived
🇫🇷 France and 2 moreMontbéliarde
A red and white dairy breed from eastern France, prized for cheesemaking milk.Taurine · Dairy · Rich milk
🇬🇳 Guinea and 5 moreN'Dama
A West African breed that can live where tsetse flies carry trypanosomiasisTaurine · Disease-resistant
🇵🇰 Pakistan and 3 moreRed Sindhi
A humped dairy zebu from Sindh in Pakistan, deep red, with short curved hornsZebu · Dairy · Heat-tolerant
🇱🇻 LatviaLatvian Brown
A red dairy breed from Latvia, developed from Angeln stock and once numbering over a million head.Taurine · Dairy · Docile
🇿🇦 South Africa and 2 moreAfrikaner
A Sanga-type breed from South Africa, deep red with long horns, kept for beef and draught work.Sanga · Beef · Heat-tolerant
🇰🇿 KazakhstanAlatau
A dual-purpose beef and dairy breed from Kazakhstan, named after the Alatau MountainsDual-purpose
🇮🇳 India and 5 moreOngole
A short-horned zebu breed from Andhra Pradesh, white with dark markings, used for work and milk.Zebu · Draught · Heat-tolerant
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Normande: Tsaag Valren, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- German Black Pied: WytzeNauta, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Heck: 4028mdk09, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Braunvieh: 4028mdk09, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Hereford: Hayden Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, source
- Hanwoo: mycrefun, CC0, source
- Pinzgauer: Wald1siedel, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Brahman: AlejandroLinaresGarcia, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Brown Swiss: No machine-readable author provided. Malcolm Morley~commonswiki assume, Public domain, source
- Montbéliarde: Abujoy, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Danish Red: Malene Thyssen, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Guernsey: Man vyi, Public domain, source
- Aurochs: Jaap Rouwenhorst (photograph) DFoidl (GIMP modifications), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bali cattle: Gsarwa, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Indian aurochs: Jochen Ackermann (User name: Altaileopard ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Kalmyk: not specified, Public domain, source
- Banteng: Magalhães, Public domain, source
- Piedmontese: Aleks, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Latvian Brown: Ingrīda Briede, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Gir: Pavanaja, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Chianina: Monica, CC BY 2.0, source
- Ayrshire: Biggle, Jacob., Public domain, source
- Simmental: Richard Bartz, Munich Makro Freak, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Sahiwal: Harvinder Chandigarh, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Blonde d'Aquitaine: Myrabella, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Hungarian Grey: The original uploader was Faludi at Hungarian Wikipedia ., CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Nelore: Jose Reynaldo da Fonseca, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Pajuna: DFoidl, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Afrikaner: Amada44, Public domain, source
- Ongole: DMR Sekhar, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Dexter: Hayden Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, source
- Gayal: Aditya Kabir, Public domain, source
- Holstein Friesian: Vista Alegre baserria, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Yak: 4028mdk09, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- N'Dama: ILRI, CC BY 2.0, source
- Zebu: A. J. T. Johnsingh, WWF-India and NCF, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Santa Gertrudis: Cgoodwin, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Wild yak: Jim, the Photographer, CC BY 2.0, source
- Charolais: Forum concoursvaches.fr, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Red Sindhi: LunaticFringe97, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Galloway: GerardM, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Belgian Blue: Stoolhog, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Shorthorn: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Dzo: Markrosenrosen, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Ankole-Watusi: Vassil, Public domain, source
- Beefalo: Mark Spearman, CC BY 2.0, source
- Texas Longhorn: Clinton & Charles Robertson, CC BY 2.0, source