Taurine cattle
Humpless cattle, Bos taurus, from the aurochs of the Near East: the breeds of Europe, West Africa and East Asia.
Taurine cattle, Bos taurus, are the humpless cattle. They descend from the aurochs of the Near East, tamed in the upper valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates roughly ten and a half thousand years ago, and they spread with early farmers into Europe, North Africa and East Asia. Almost every European breed is taurine, from the Holstein and Jersey to the Highland and Chianina, as are the Wagyu and Hanwoo of East Asia and the N'Dama and Kuri of Africa. In South Asia, the native cattle are zebu instead, though taurine blood has come in through crossbreeding.
Origins in the Near East
Archaeology and ancient DNA point to the northern Fertile Crescent, in what is now south-east Turkey, northern Syria and northern Iraq, as the place where aurochs were first kept and bred around ten and a half thousand years ago. The founding herd seems to have been small. From there, cattle travelled with farmers west along the Mediterranean and up the Danube into Europe, and south into Egypt. Wild aurochs bulls sometimes crossed with domestic cows along the way, leaving traces of local wild ancestry in some European breeds.
How to tell them
Taurine cattle have no hump over the shoulders and usually a small, tight dewlap, with shorter ears than zebu. Their coats are often thicker and they cope better with cold than with heat. They have fewer sweat glands than zebu. Within the taurine family, breeds range from the long-legged Podolic grey cattle to the compact Highland and the tiny Dexter, and from the black Angus to the white Charolais and the pied Holstein.
Taurine cattle in Africa and Asia
West Africa has old taurine breeds of its own: the long-horned N'Dama of Guinea and the short-horned Baoulé, Lagune and others. Many of them tolerate the trypanosomes carried by tsetse fly, which makes them vital where zebu struggle. The Kuri of Lake Chad is another African taurine. In East Asia, the Wagyu of Japan, the Hanwoo of Korea and Mongolian cattle are taurine or mostly so. In India, Holstein and Jersey crosses with native zebu now make up a large share of the dairy herd.
Worth knowing
- Holstein Friesian: The most numerous dairy breed in the world
- Aberdeen Angus: Black polled beef breed from north-east Scotland
- Highland: Shaggy, long-horned cattle of the Scottish Highlands
- Jersey: Small, fawn dairy cow from the island of Jersey
- Chianina: Very tall white breed of Tuscany
- N'Dama: Trypanotolerant West African taurine
- Wagyu: Japanese cattle bred for marbling
- Hanwoo: Native brown cattle of Korea
Sources and further reading
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.
Taurine on EveryCow
The breeds written up so far, best known first.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 5 moreHereford
A red and white beef breed from Herefordshire, England, known for its white face and hardiness.Taurine · Beef · Docile
🇨🇭 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
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 2 moreAyrshire
Red-and-white dairy cattle from south-west Scotland, hardy, long-lived and easy calversTaurine · Dairy · Easy calving
🇩🇪 Germany and 3 moreHeck
A German type bred in the 1920s to recreate the extinct aurochsTaurine · Grazing · Cold-hardy
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 4 moreGalloway
A polled black beef breed from south-west Scotland with a thick double coatTaurine · Beef · Cold-hardy
🇮🇪 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
🇲🇳 Mongolia and 3 moreKalmykКалмыцкая
A compact red beef breed of the old Soviet Union, noted for exceptional toughnessTaurine · Beef · Thrifty foragers
🇭🇷 Croatia and 5 moreBuša
A little mountain cow of the Balkans with short horns, kept for milk, meat and workTaurine · Triple-purpose · Disease-resistant
🇸🇪 SwedenFjällSvensk fjällras
A polled, mostly white dairy cow from the Swedish mountains, hardy on thin grazing.Taurine · Dairy · Polled
🇮🇹 ItalyMaremmana
A big grey Podolic beef breed from the old marshes of the Maremma in central ItalyTaurine · Beef · Thrifty foragers
🇫🇷 France and 1 moreTarentaise
A French alpine breed from the Tarentaise valley, kept for cheese and for crossingTaurine · Dairy · Docile
🇱🇹 LithuaniaLithuanian RedLietuvos žalieji
A red beef breed from Lithuania, bred from Danish Red and local cattleTaurine · Beef · Thrifty foragers
🇸🇪 SwedenSwedish Red PolledRödkulla
A hornless red Swedish cow kept for milk and meat, once reduced to about 20 animals.Taurine · Dual-purpose · Polled
🇮🇹 ItalyAosta Black PiedValdostana Pezzata Nera
A short-horned, black-pied dual-purpose breed from the Aosta Valley in ItalyTaurine · Dual-purpose · Thrifty foragers
🇦🇹 Austria and 1 moreTyrol GreyTiroler Grauvieh
An alpine dual-purpose breed of the Tyrol, milked and fattenedTaurine · Dual-purpose · Cold-hardy
🇦🇹 AustriaTux-ZillertalTux-Zillertaler
A stocky Alpine breed from Tirol, black or red, once bred for cow-fighting contests.Taurine · Beef · Spirited
🇮🇪 Ireland and 2 moreKerryBó Chiarraí
A rare black dairy breed from southwest Ireland, one of Europe's oldest milk cattleTaurine · Dairy · Thrifty foragers
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 3 moreRed Poll
A naturally hornless red English breed, kept for milk and beefTaurine · Dual-purpose · Polled
🇩🇪 Germany and 1 moreHinterwaldHinterwälder Rind
A small Black Forest cow, white head and pied coat, kept for both milk and beefTaurine · Dual-purpose · Cold-hardy
🇮🇪 IrelandIrish MoiledBó Maol
A rare hornless Irish breed, red with a white back stripe, used for milk and beefTaurine · Dual-purpose · Polled
🇵🇹 PortugalRamo GrandeRaça Bovina Ramo Grande
A large red-brown cattle breed from Terceira in the Azores, once used for work and milkTaurine · Triple-purpose · Thrifty foragers
🇫🇷 FranceCorse
A small tan cow from Corsica, once the island's plough ox, now reared free-range for beefTaurine · Beef · Thrifty foragers
🇪🇸 SpainPajuna
An endangered Andalusian breed, dark bulls and red-brown cows, once used for draught workTaurine · Draught · Cold-hardy
🇫🇷 FranceBretonne Pie Noir
A small pied black and white dairy cow from Brittany, once half a million strongTaurine · Dairy · Thrifty foragers
🇫🇷 FranceMirandaise
A large, heat-tolerant draught breed from the Gers, now raised for vealTaurine · Draught · Heat-tolerant
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Maremmana: Zyance, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Lithuanian Red: Aleksandrs Timofejevs, CC0, source
- Swedish Red Polled: Ankara, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Buša: P.Cikovac, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Tarentaise: BlackSlash73, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tux-Zillertal: Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Heck: 4028mdk09, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Hereford: Hayden Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, source
- Tyrol Grey: Burkhard Mücke, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Mirandaise: PANDA 81, CC0, source
- Aosta Black Pied: Lohen11, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Irish Moiled: No machine-readable author provided. Malcolm Morley~commonswiki assume, Public domain, source
- Ramo Grande: Carlos Luis M C da Cruz, Public domain, source
- Kalmyk: not specified, Public domain, source
- Ayrshire: Biggle, Jacob., Public domain, source
- Simmental: Richard Bartz, Munich Makro Freak, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Kerry: Pedroserafin, CC BY 2.5, source
- Red Poll: Poinciana, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Corse: luiginter, CC BY 2.0, source
- Pajuna: DFoidl, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Dexter: Hayden Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, source
- Fjäll: Yvonne Zimmermann, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, source
- Galloway: GerardM, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bretonne Pie Noir: Tsaag Valren, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Hinterwald: -- Xocolatl 10:55, 26 April 2008 (UTC), Public domain, source