Original Braunvieh

What do Original Braunvieh cattle look like?

The Original Braunvieh is a brown cow of the dairy-and-beef kind, kept in its pure form in Switzerland. Its coat runs from grey to brown, with white at the ears and on the muzzle, and the animals carry horns. Cows are the smaller of the two: about 700 kg and 135 to 145 cm at the hips. Bulls stand 140 to 160 cm there and weigh 1,000 to 1,100 kg, so a mature bull is both taller and much heavier than a cow. Compared with the Braunvieh seen today, these cattle are shorter, give less milk and put on more muscle.

Where does the Original Braunvieh come from?

For several hundred years the monks of Einsiedeln Monastery in Switzerland bred these cattle, and they wrote down what they did. Their books and diaries hold the breeding rules and the thinking behind early Braunvieh selection, so the herd's past is well recorded. Later the breed travelled. In the years 1869 to 1880 animals left Switzerland for the United States, chosen for how much milk they gave, and those imports became the foundation of the American Brown Swiss. In the 1980s breeders in Germany and Austria set up associations to keep the old type going.

What the Original Braunvieh is known for

What separates these cattle from the Braunvieh most people meet today is a shorter frame, less milk in the pail, heavier muscling and a better return when finished for beef. Breeders kept the line pure instead of mixing in Brown Swiss blood, so the original type stayed close to what it was. The monastic books show patient selection across centuries, with the sound cow put first and the beef following from the frame.

How the Original Braunvieh is bred and kept

Keeping the breed going has meant refusing the Brown Swiss cross. Modern Braunvieh herds were improved with Brown Swiss blood, while breeders of the Original held to the older line. The Einsiedeln monks left the earliest plan, in rules and diaries that record their breeding principles and which animals they chose. From the 1980s, associations in Germany and Austria took up the same work, keeping the pure animals. Mature cows weigh about 700 kg and bulls between 1,000 and 1,100 kg.

What the Original Braunvieh is kept for

Original Braunvieh are dual-purpose: milk and beef come from the same herd. The milk side is modest by modern standards, since these cows give less than the Braunvieh of today, but the carcass side is stronger, with more muscle and better beef performance. In practice a farm keeps them for both, milking the cows and rearing the calves, rather than pushing either yield to the limit. They have also served as breeding material elsewhere, because the American Brown Swiss descends from animals of this kind chosen for milk.

Who keeps the Original Braunvieh

The monks of Einsiedeln Monastery are the keepers named in the breed's story. They bred and selected the cattle for several centuries and left detailed records and diaries behind. Now the work of holding the pure line is done by breeders in Germany and Austria, whose associations were formed in the 1980s, and by farmers in Switzerland who still keep the old type. In the United States the Brown Swiss breed traces back to Swiss animals sent abroad in 1869 to 1880.

Custom and folk tradition

The herding life of this breed belongs to the monastery at Einsiedeln, where the cattle were kept and bred for centuries. The monks wrote as they worked: their books and diaries set out breeding principles and the early thinking behind Braunvieh selection. Those pages are where the breed's early history survives, and writing them down was part of how the herd was managed.

Related breeds and crosses

Two relatives matter here. The first is modern Braunvieh, the same brown cow improved with Brown Swiss blood; it stands taller and gives more milk than the Original. The second is the American Brown Swiss, which grew out of animals shipped to America in the 1869 to 1880 period. Telling the two Braunvieh types apart is not hard, and the practical markers are height, milk yield and muscling.

Numbers, conservation and the herd book

The breed's continued existence rests on conservation work: breeding associations formed in Germany and Austria in the 1980s have the job of keeping the pure line. Those groups were set up while modern Braunvieh was taking the Brown Swiss cross. The Original also left descendants far from Europe, because the animals picked for milk and exported in 1869 to 1880 stand at the head of the American Brown Swiss breed.

Questions people ask about Original Braunvieh

Good reading and sources

• Original Braunvieh on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data