Breeds of Leeuwarden and Us Mem
The Frisian capital, with a statue of a cow called Us Mem, Our Mother, honouring the black and white cattle of Friesland.
Breeds of this place
Best time: May to September.
Leeuwarden is the capital of Friesland, a flat, green province of the northern Netherlands where dairy farming has been central for centuries. Friesian black and white cattle spread from here and from neighbouring North Holland to the world, and in North America became the Holstein Friesian, the most numerous dairy breed. In 1954 the Frisian cattle herd-book society put up a bronze cow in the city, called Us Mem.
Friesian cattle
Frisian farmers have kept black and white cattle on their wet pastures since the Middle Ages, and cheese and butter were exported from here for centuries. Dutch cattle were shipped to North America from the mid nineteenth century, where they were bred for high milk yield. The Holstein Friesian has since come back to Europe and replaced many older Dutch types.
Us Mem
The statue Us Mem, Our Mother, stands on a square in the city, a life-size bronze of a Frisian cow. It was made to mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of the herd book society, founded in 1879. In the countryside around, farms stand on terps, artificial mounds once built against floods, and older breeds such as the Blaarkop and the Lakenvelder are still kept by some farmers.
A trail idea for Leeuwarden and Us Mem
- Us Mem statue The bronze cow honouring Frisian cattle.
- Oldehove The leaning church tower of the old city.
- Terp villages Villages on mounds in the flat dairy country.
- Fries Museum The provincial museum of Frisian history and art.
Written by the EveryCow desk with AI assistance. Background: "Leeuwarden" on Wikipedia. Fair dates, markets and visiting rules change; check locally before travelling, and keep a respectful distance from working animals. If something is wrong, tell us.
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