Cattle breeds of the steppe and plains

Steppe and plains are wide, open grasslands with hot summers, cold winters and few trees. The Eurasian steppe runs from Hungary through Ukraine and southern Russia to Kazakhstan and Mongolia; the Great Plains of North America and the Pampas of Argentina are its counterparts in the Americas. Cattle of the steppe have often been grey, long-horned and tough, like the Hungarian Grey and the Ukrainian Grey, or compact and hardy, like the Kalmyk. The plains were also where the great ranching systems of the Americas grew up.

Herders of the Eurasian steppe

The Kalmyk cattle came to the lower Volga with Oirat herders in the seventeenth century and still graze the steppe there, outdoors much of the year. They store fat before winter and can dig through snow for grass. In Kazakhstan, the Kazakh Whiteheaded was bred in the twentieth century from Hereford bulls and local Kazakh and Kalmyk cows, to give a beef animal suited to hard winters. Mongolian cattle, small and shaggy, share the pastures with yak, horses, sheep and camels.

The grey cattle of the puszta

Long-horned grey cattle once walked in large droves from the Hungarian plain to markets in Vienna, Nuremberg and Venice. The Hungarian Grey, with its wide, upswept horns, was the beef animal of that trade, and it is related to the Podolian grey cattle found from Ukraine to southern Italy. Numbers fell sharply in the twentieth century, and the breed was rescued by a small number of breeders. Herds now graze the puszta of Hortobágy National Park.

The American plains

After the Civil War, cattle from Texas were driven north on trails such as the Chisholm Trail to railheads in Kansas, and the open range of the Great Plains filled with cattle. The Texas Longhorn, descended from Spanish cattle, carried that trade. Barbed wire, railways and hard winters ended the open range by the late 1880s, and Hereford and Angus cattle took over the fenced ranches. Ranching on the plains still runs on grass in summer and hay through the winter.

The Pampas

The Pampas of Argentina and Uruguay are flat, fertile grasslands where cattle have grazed since the sixteenth century. Feral herds from Spanish stock were first hunted for hides, and later British breeds, especially Aberdeen Angus and Hereford, were brought in by estancia owners in the nineteenth century. The gaucho, the horseman of the Pampas, became part of national identity in both countries. Argentina's beef is still largely raised on grass for much of the animal's life.

Worth knowing

Kalmyk: Cattle of the Volga steppe
Kazakh Whiteheaded: Beef breed of the Kazakh steppe
Hungarian Grey: Long-horned grey cattle of the puszta
Ukrainian Grey: Grey steppe cattle of Ukraine
Texas Longhorn: Cattle of the trail drives
Chisholm Trail: Cattle trail from Texas to Kansas
Hortobágy National Park: Puszta grazed by grey cattle

Good to know

Provide windbreaks and shelter belts for winter storms.
Store hay before winter; deep or crusted snow can stop grazing.
Watch water in hot summers, when shallow ponds dry up.

Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text by the EveryCow desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Steppe and plains on EveryCow

The breeds written up so far, best known first.

Steppe and plains: its breeds