The Maremmana is an Italian cattle breed, deemed to belong to the Podolian strain, a group of European grey cattle, some of which are now extinct, and who are believed to be descended from common ancestors, given their remarkable resemblance. The breed owes its name to its spreading area, the Maremma, a once marshy coastal region of Italy between southern Tuscany and northern Latium.
History
Many consider the
Maremmana and the other Podolian as direct descendants of the
aurochs (Bos taurus primigenius, Bojanus,
1827),the ancent wild cattle, now extinct, whose last specimen
probably died in Poland in 1627.
The aurochs is described by Julius Caesar in De
Bello Gallico, and Pliny (Historia Naturalis, VIII 30, 74),
tells of a Taurus silvestris, a ferocious blue-eyed fawn-haired
wild cattle living in Ethiopia. Indeed, it seems unlikely that
the latter may correspond to the aurochs, being more likely an
imaginary animal, whose description would be indirect, exaggerated
and twisted.
The opinion of the direct lineage of the Podolian from the aurochs
is a residual of the zootechnical theories proposing various species
of the genus Bos as ancestors of the different cattle strains
(polyphyletic theory), especially on the basis of the skull
diameters and the length of the horns.
The Swiss naturalist Ludwig Rütimeyer
in 1862 classified the remains of wild cattle in two species:
Bos primigenius and Bos brachyceros alike as the
Bos longifrons classified by Owen, later Nilsson classified an
intermediate form, Bos frontosus, then Wilkens proposed
the Bos brachycephalus, and finally Arenander launched
the Bos akeratos. The French zootechnician André
Sanson divided cattle into 12 natural species or breeds, with
different geographic adjectives, six of which were dolichocephalic
(elongated skull) and six brachycephalic (shortened skull) (Malossini).
According to these
theories, the Bos primigenius would be the ancestor of
the Grey Steppes and Podolian breeds, while bull-fighting fans
maintain that the direct descendant of Bos primigenius
be the raza de lidia, the one used in the corrida.
Modern taxonomic science clarifies that the aurochs belonged to
the same species of domestic cattle, and therefore the various
prehistoric bovines classified by their own specific names were
in fact different forms of Bos taurus. So all current cattle
breeds come from the aurochs.
Already in Charles Darwin supported
the same thesis: “The doctrine of the origin of our several
domestic races from several aboriginal stocks, has been carried
to an absurd extreme by some authors. They believe that every
race which breeds true, let the distinctive characters be ever
so slight, has had its wild prototype. At this rate there must
have existed at least a score of species of wild cattle, as many
sheep, and several goats, in Europe alone, and several even within
Great Britain” (The origin of species, chapter I).
Therefore, all present cattle breeds descend from these ancestors,
though some, having been less subject to genetic improvement,
have maintained greater resemblance to the wild ancestor, as we
see it represented in prehistoric graffiti
and statuettes and in medieval
prints. It should however be underlined that the Maremmana breed,
despite being a very rustic and notoriously not very tame animal,
has a centuries-old past as a draft animal, and is therefore the
result of an intense and very harsh selection as a farm animal,
which necessarily distanced it from its wild ancestor.
Other details about the theories on the origins of Podolian breeds
can be found in this article
(in Italian).
According to the traditional
theories, Podolian cattle came in Italy from Eastern Europe steppes
(Podolia is a part of today’s Ukraine) in the 5th
century, with the barbarian invasions and, crossing on the local
cattle, would have given origin to several local populations.
Actually, there is no documentation on this introduction, and
the few news left by the chroniclers of the era lead rather to
exclude that Podolian breeds were brought to Italy during the
barbarian invasions, also because many of the invasions were carried
out by mounted warriors, who moved quickly, without their families
and furnishings following, including cattle, but rather raided
the livestock and the food they found on their way. For example,
the famous invasion of Attila's Huns of 452, considered by many
responsible for the introduction of Podolian cattle in Italy,
lasted only three months, practically it was a raid, which excludes
that Huns hordes were worried about improving Italian livestock.
Other authors (Ciani
and Matassino), deny
the Podolian origin of Italian grey cattle breeds, remarking that
similar macrocerous (broad-horned) cattle are documented in Mediterranean
region since the Neolithic age, living together with their wild
ancestor Bos primigenius, and assume that the Balkan
livestock is instead derived from the Italian one. The paintings
and sculptures of the Egyptians and
Minoan show cattle with traits close to
the present macrocerous cattle, like Maremmana or Iberian breeds,
such as Spanish and Portuguese Cachena (see image of bull
and cows) and Portuguese Barrosã
(see image of bull and cow),
which show horns' shape particularly close to Maremmana, though
having for the rest very different traits.
Also in Italy representations of macrocerous cattle were found, such as the XI century b.C. bronze foil cup found in Tolfa, in the heart of Latium Maremma, the Villanovian askos of Tarquinia museum, again in Latium Maremma (VIII century b.C.), and from Bologna (725-680 b.C.), the bronze group of a ploughman with two oxen, of the late VIII century. b.C. and the sacrifice scene on a bronze vase, of the second half of VIII century b.C., both from Bisentium (on Bolsena lake), like the Etruscan frescoes from the "tomb of the Bulls" of VI century b.C., in Caere (Cerveteri, again in Latium Maremma), the bull represented on the repoussage silver urn and the charriot coping from the Duce tomb of Vetulonia (in Tuscan Maremma), kept at Florence Archaeological Museum and the small oxen heads adorning the bronze basin from Bernardini tomb of Palestrina (675 b.C.), exposed at Villa Giulia National Etruscan Museum in Rome, in Villa Poniatowski location.
According to some authors
of the past, a Roman breed existed, very similar to Maremmana,
and so called for its strong connection with the city of Rome,
where it was widely used as draught
animals, which were even shod,
as the main source of beef,
led into the city in herds,
and as the leading role of the Giostra
delle vaccine, the Roman version of the bullfight.
In 1908 the Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon,
vol. 16, alongside Hungarian-Transilvanian and Podolian-Bessarabian,
cites an Italian variety of the Podolian strain, the "romanische
Rasse" (Roman breed) (Maróti-Agots).
Also in 1908, Bartolini and Cazzella described the "wild
bovine breed of the Agro Romano" as "susceptible
to notable improvements if (...) subjected to greater hygienic
care and intensive feeding" and described it as "medium
and high sized (from 1.60 to 1.80 at the withers), with long horns
generally arranged in the shape of a lyre, grey coat, rough hair
and thick skin. We note the correctness of the shapes: trunk generally
horizontal in its upper line; square chest, poorly developed rump”.
On the other hand, “Roman cattle are only slaughtered
in the summer months – usually from June to October. - The
meat, although tasty, is little appreciated due to its lack of
marbling, almost always coming from animals in a poor state of
nutrition and of a rather advanced age; and because - deriving
from heavily overworked animals - exposed to the air it becomes
dark-red in colour, easily alterable, so it is not susceptible
to suitable aging".
Maremmana cattle are commonly portrayed in numberless Roman Campagna
paintings of several artist, starting from the 17th
century (see images here below).
A foreign breed very similar
to Maremmana is the Hungarian grey
(Magyar szürke szarvasmarha), maybe an ancestor of
the grey cattle who was introduced in Italy in the 5th
century, but also derived from Maremmana, when in 18th
century Lorraine family, holding the throne of Tuscany Gran Duchy,
sent Maremmana bulls to cross their cattle in the family estates
in Hungarian puszta. Other shipments of Maremmana breeders
for crossings in the Hungarian Grey occurred in 1934 (2 cows and
2 bulls) and in 1936 (9 bulls and 7 heifers), from State farms
of Tor Mancina, in Monterotondo district and Montemaggiore, in
Montelibretti district, both in the province of Rome, with further
exports not better quantified, until 1944 (Hönsch, 1971). In October 1971 a bull and three
young bulls from Alberese, Polverosa and Musignano farms, in Grosseto
province, were exported in Hungary (Hönsch, 1973).
Maremma region was characterized by a harsh environment and a
difficult situation even for human population, due to malaria
which was present until the first years of last century, so the
cattle that took origin there, was a strong, resistant breed,
used to graze wild in extensive pastures. The advent of farm mechanization
reduced dramatically the consistency of Maremmana, and from an
initial triple purpose (dairy-beef-draught), the breed turned
to a double purpose (beef-draught) and nowadays is a beef breed.
The attempt to transform Maremmana into a more productive, yet
less rustic cattle, by means of substitution crosses, was fortunately
abandoned in the first years of last century, even though at that
time it reduced the number of heads reared as purebred, and today
Maremmana is used as a pure breed or crossed with beef breeds
(usually Charolaise, but also Chianina, Limousin
and others, to produce young bulls with better beef traits, without
losing the rusticity and maternal skill of Maremmana cows). Chianina
x Maremmana crossbreds were in the past known as Cecinese
breed (Mason).
In 1862 Cuppari describes
Maremmana as having low height, shape similar to that of buffaloes,
"with neck and head leaning out" hardy but wild.
In 1872 Vallada distinguished the breed "delle Maremme"
defined as "able to stand the most painful works, and
of the strongest nature that one may desire", but bad
producer of milk and meat, and the "Romana" the
most ancient in Italy, the ancestor of the Italian plain breeds,
very similar to the Hungarian breed and crossed with the Podolian
breed of the Balkans, where it would have been imported by the
Romans, with great resistance to the difficult environmental conditions
in which it was raised.
In 1903 Faelli mentions Maremmana breed, present in Tuscany, of
Podolian origin, having a nearly
wild in appearance, very good for draught, scantily appreciated
for beef, and the bovine breed of Latium, also known as
the breed of the Roman countryside, also of Podolian origin,
with a hardy and noble appearance, broad-horned, whit a well-developed
foretrunk, more than hindtrunk, pointy rump, black apical pigmentation
and grey coat, fawn in the calf until weaning. The breed had a
draught purpose with poor dairy attitude and milk yield sufficient
only to feed the calf. The bulls, after serving a few years as
breeders, were castrated and fattened. According to Faelli, the
breed was susceptible to improvement provided it was reared by
the breeders.
In 1928 a speech by professor Renzo Giuliani at a breeders meeting
in Grosseto laid the basis for the selection of the breed, with
the foundation of the first breeders' associations, although the
morphological selection had been long-time implemented by the
most advanced breeders who provided reproducers to farmers in
other regions. In 1932 the Regional Agricultural Inspectorate
of Tuscany and the Institute of Animal Husbandry at the University
of Florence, launched a morphological selection program, by intervening
on the best herds also having weight controls, on a scheme proposed
by professor Giuliani, getting quickly very good results. Since
1936, the "progeny tests" were started on the
bulls' offspring, and in the provinces of Grosseto and Viterbo
nuclei of selection were created.
In 1941 Albertario censed 288,135 heads of Maremmana, about a
hundred thousand more than Friesian breed, then defined as "Dutch."
The heads were raised for almost half in Latium, and for the rest
in 14 other regions, especially in Tuscany, Marche and Umbria.
Still in 1941, Tassinari's Manuale dell'Agronomo (Agronomist's
Handbook) listed among the functional traits of Maremmana: "a
very marked draught attitude, combined with rusticity and low
dietary requirements, with a subordinated meat production;
good calf suckling capacity. Adults' dressing percentage 45-50%
"
Breeding
The Maremmana has
remarkable rusticity traits, with high skill to graze on dry pastures
in every season, exploiting food resources that other breeds could
not convert, making their breeding costs extremely low, and giving
fattening calves, purebred or crossbred with specialized beef
breeds. In addition, Maremmana is also highly resistant to drought,
parasites and predators due to morphological and physiological
characteristics, but also to the protection behaviour towards
the group and offspring. very similar to those of wild ruminants.
Maremmana breeding is traditionally wild all year long, needing
only very small integrations of straw to fulfil their requirements.
In winter cattle exploit woods and bushes for feeding and as a
shelter from the cold, and in springtime, after the calvings,
on pastures, where the cows have enough food resources to suckle
the calves. In summertime the pasture is on marshy areas, woods,
and where available, on irrigated meadows and grasslands, while
in autumn they go back to the pastures they already exploited
in spring, staying there until November, when they go wintering
in the scrub, where the big horns help the animals to make themselves
way in the thick vegetation.
Maremmana cow's rusticity includes its good maternal capacity,
meant as the skill to bring the calf alive and healthy until the
age of weaning (at 5th month with 98% of calves' survival),
and consisting in a great ease of calving, without any help, very
good milk production (10 - 12 l/day) which assures to the calf
satisfying daily growth (up to 1 kg/day) and capacity to protect
itself and the calf from attacks of predators (mainly wolves and
free-ranging dogs).
Calves are weaned in autumn and in the following spring they are
iron branded during the "merca" which is often
an opportunity for traditional feasts, being also a tourist attraction.
The mating season lasts about three months, with groups of 20-30
cows per bull.
Morphology
The traits characterizing
Maremmana cattle are wide horns, long on average 60 cm, but which
can reach 145 cm., with a distance between the tips of one meter,
half-moon shaped in bulls and lyre
shaped in the cows. The coat
is dark to light grey in the cow, and dark grey for the bull,
with darker head, neck, fore legs
and fore part of the trunk. In 1941 Tassinari's Manuale dell'Agronomo
(Agronomist's Handbook) listed the black spots under the eye sockets
and black hair on the neck, shoulders, forearms and dewlap as
traits to be held in high regard for the bulls. At birth the calf
has a fawn coat, which starts
to turn grey around the third month of age.
Some parts have to be black (black apical pigmentation) in order
to stand open air breeding in areas with strong solar irradiation.
The black pigmentation concerns hooves, dewclaws, edges of the
horns, tongue, muzzle, mucosae of natural openings, eyelashes,
edges of the eyelids and the ears, tuft of the foreskin, lower
part of the scrotum, tassel of the tail. For specimens having
the functional-morphological traits required for the admission
to the herd book, a reddish tuft on the pull, a grey tassel of
the tail and the partial depigmentation of the natural openings
are tolerated.
The skeleton is well developed and massive, as the foretrunk and
forelegs are, and together with the correct verticality of limbs,
these are typical traits of draught
animals, giving to these cattle a mighty appearance. The centuries-old
history of Maremmana as draught animal is witnessed by the depth
of its chest that, with subsequent selection for beef purpose,
generated an increase in the transverse diameters of this area,
with a greater arching of the ribs.
Joints are neat,
skin is fine, elastic,
loose and greasy, with good cutaneous muscles functionality, suitable
for repelling parasites, and the abdomen is capacious, albeit
not too bulky or sagging, allowing an adequate ingestion capacity,
in order to contain the relevant amount of coarse vegetable feed,
with low nutritional value of which Maremmana cattle can take
advantage. Compared to the past, the dewlap is reduced but still
relevant, as remains of when it was an additional heat dissipation
surface, indispensable for draught animals in very hot environments.
Maremmana cows reach 15-16 years of age, even if their development
is rather tardy: at 18 months their weight is 350-440 Kg, and
the adult weight is 600-700 Kg, while the bulls' weight is 700-1200
Kg. At slaughtering 18 months Maremmana young bulls have an average
carcass weight of 280.9 kg , with a dressing percentage of 52.88
and net dressing percentage of 58.65. Withers height varies from
155 to 180 cm for bulls, and from 143 to 150 cm in cows, depending
on ecotypes.
For the sake of comparison, the following table shows the data
on Maremmana, published in 1941 on Tassinari's Manuale dell'Agronomo
(Agronomist's Handbook).
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Selection
Maremmana herd book
is kept by ANABIC
(Associazione Nazionale Allevatori Razze Italiane Bovine da Carne
- National Breeders Association of Italian Beef Cattle Breeds)
that in 1961 incorporated Maremmana Breeders' Association. The
best calves are reared in station (at Alberese, near Grosseto)
in performance test, whence, if selected, they go out at 15 months
of age as sires, if selected. Dams and sires are selected for
their productivity, genealogy and morphology, this latter consisting
in an assessment of functional beauty of the animal, therefore
focused mainly on muscular development, rather than on merely
aesthetical standards, like it was in the past. Since 1986, ANABIC
has introduced a new morphological evaluation form, based on these
new principles.
The selection goals are the production of rustic individuals able
to produce good quality meat, with a free-range raising systems
and exploiting low-quality vegetable resources. Cows are required
to have longevity and good maternal attitudes,
The selection scheme is implemented
at Young Bulls Selection Center, and allows to reach the maximum
progress according to the different farm organizations. The herds
managed with a grazing system are divided into two categories:
"A" employing only one bull for each mating group, and
from which the young bulls are produced (4) and "B"
(7): employing more than one bull for each mating group (8) which
can produce replacement heifers but not bulls. Young bulls are
evaluated and selected in specific centers (1),
based on their own production traits and on their mothers', selected
on the basis of maternal abilities and reproductive efficiency
(5). ANABIC publishes on its website
the images of the ideal bull
and cow, according to the breed
standard.
Nowadays
The census of the Herd book is over 11,000 heads, nearly half
of which are in the province of Rome, and 76% live in Latium,
while 22% are raised in Tuscany (almost all in the province of
Grosseto).
Several heads of Maremmana are reared in "institutional"
herds, in addition to Alberese
Estate, near Grosseto, in Tuscany, the organic farm of Ente
Pubblico Terre Regionali Toscane (Public Institution of Tuscan
Regional Lands), that hosts the above mentioned Young Bulls Selection
Center, we also count the Presidential
Estate of Castelporziano, the Farm
of the Municipality of Rome in Castel di Guido, and the Research
Center for Meat Production and Improvement (PCM) of the Council
for Research in Agriculture and Agricultural Economy Analysis
(CREA) at Tor Mancina,
in the Municipality of Monterotondo, near Rome.
There is a rising interest for this breed by the farmers of southern
Italy but also abroad (Spain and Central America), for its rusticity,
allowing it to grow on harsh environments at a low cost.
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you can use these photos, provided
that you quote the source
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links:
Slow
Food Foundation for Biodiversity Nonprofit Organization http://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/it/presidi-slow-food/razza-maremmana/
page
created: June
23rd 2001 and last updated: July 10th, 2024