Braunvieh

What do Braunvieh cattle look like?

This is a big Alpine dairy breed. A cow measures roughly 140 to 152 cm at the withers, the bony ridge between the shoulders, and weighs some 650 to 700 kg; a bull averages 152 cm and 1050 kg. The coat is one even shade of brown or grey-brown, with no patches. The muzzle is black, circled by a pale ring, and the horns are light coloured with dark points. It started out as a triple-purpose animal, supplying milk, meat and oxen for work, and the modern type is kept chiefly for milk. Lines untouched by American blood continue in smaller numbers.

Where does the Braunvieh come from?

Grey-brown mountain cattle have been kept in the canton of Schwyz since mediaeval times, and today's Braunvieh comes down from them. Deeds written at the Monastery of Einsiedeln in the late fourteenth century tell of such cattle being sent to Vorarlberg, now part of Austria. Between 1775 and 1782 that monastery kept a herd book, thought to be the first for any breed of cattle. An account from 1795 praises the Schwyzer animals as the biggest and best in the country. Three Alpine brown breeds were recognised in 1875 and joined into one record in 1879. A breeders' association was founded at Bünzen in Aargau in 1897.

How the Braunvieh is bred and kept

A single herd book, the Schweizerische Braunvieh, has recorded the breed since 1879. American Brown Swiss blood was used heavily: crossings between 1967 and 1998 aimed at more milk, a bigger frame and a better udder, and German herds had drawn 60% of their ancestry from that American breed by 1994. In the Swiss population more than three quarters of the genetic make-up now comes from it. Breeders who preferred the old type kept their own line, registered in the same book as the Schweizer Original Braunvieh from 1993 and organised in the Allgäu from 1988.

What the Braunvieh is kept for

The breed's work has changed over time. Once it filled three roles at once: milk, meat and draught oxen. Milk now comes first. Over a 300-day lactation a cow gives about 6735 kg, testing near 3.97% fat and 3.35% protein. In Italy the Bruna Italiana led dairy herds until roughly 1950, when the Frisona Italiana took over. Animals taken to America in the late nineteenth century were chosen for milk alone and turned into the American Brown Swiss, a breed in its own right.

The land and climate of the Braunvieh

The breed was formed in the Alps and belongs to mountain country, where cattle move up to summer pasture. From there it travelled downwards and outwards. Italian farmers brought it from central Switzerland from the sixteenth century onwards; it spread through Lombardy and the Veneto, where the mostly red local cattle gave way before it, and went on south as far as Calabria. On Sardinia, Bruna bulls were put to local cows and produced the Sardo-Bruna, described as hardy and productive.

Who keeps the Braunvieh

Keeping the Braunvieh has long been the work of organised breeders rather than one herding people. The Monastery of Einsiedeln was first to write the cattle down and keep a herd book. The Verbands Schweizerischer Braunviehzucht-Genossenschaften was established at Bünzen in 1897. In Germany, breeders in the Allgäu formed a group in 1988 to preserve the original type; Swiss breeders did the same formally in 1993. Italian farmers have kept the Bruna Italiana for centuries, from the Alps to Calabria, and Sardinian farmers crossed it with their own cows.

The Braunvieh at fairs and festivals

The breed has appeared at large international shows. Paris saw the Braunvieh in 1855 at the Exposition Universelle, and London in 1862 at the International Exhibition. In the same period of breed organisation, three Alpine brown breeds were recognised in 1875 and merged into a single herd book four years later. Cattle of the original type still appear at breeders' gatherings in Switzerland and Germany, where groups work to keep the older line going.

Related breeds and crosses

The Braunvieh sits in the Brown Mountain group. Breeds descended from it are found in Austria, Germany, Italy and Spain, and the American Brown Swiss is its most familiar relative. In Austria the Montafon of southern Vorarlberg, a muscular brown animal of medium weight with a pale stripe down the back, was renamed Voralberger Braunvieh in 1923. Italy's Bruna Italiana is also called Bruna Alpina, and its older line is the Bruna Italiana Vecchio Ceppo or Bruna Originaria. The Sardo-Bruna came from Bruna bulls on Sardinian cows.

Numbers, conservation and the herd book

FAO in 2007 and DAD-IS in 2025 both put the breed in the not at risk class. It has travelled widely: Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States all hold cattle descended from it, and on Sardinia it gave rise to the Sardo-Bruna. Cross-breeding has altered the Swiss population a great deal, with American Brown Swiss ancestry above 75% there and 60% in Germany by 1994. The unimproved type survives in small numbers, recorded in the same herd book from 1993 and helped by a German breeders' group formed in 1988.

Questions people ask about Braunvieh

Good reading and sources

• Braunvieh on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data