Morphological characteristics

Some history

The barbarian invasions, around the year 568, brought with them new peoples and herds with the characteristic red mantles that had been plundered in the great plains of southern Russia and Pannonia. Even today, the red fromentino colour - like wheat kernels - is a characteristic of the cattle of Ukraine and central Russia.
These were rustic cows, at the time they had a triple purpose, and good milk producers. Soon these cows became a reference point for the monks who in the twelfth century began to produce the precursor of the current Parmigiano Reggiano. Their breeding spread in Northern and Central Italy, so much so that Renaissance painters constantly depict the red ox in Nativity frescoes. The breed was (and for its quality it is still today) a main player in the agricultural and livestock context of Reggio Emilia and Parma, and was the most bred until the middle of the twentieth century, when it reached its peak in 1954 with 139,695 heads. But the post-war Italian zootechnics policy, in order to pursue easier selection targets, began to cross-breed these cows with cosmopolitan breeds. In 1980 the fromentini numbered less than a thousand. The quality of the milk and new evaluation strategies, also supported by the Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry and by the Emilia Romagna Region, has fostered a constant demographic recovery since then. Current numbers are 4,445 heads present in 108 farms.

REGGIANA BREED - Heads that undergo functional checks