Grauvieh

Tiroler Grauvieh or Tyrol Grey Cattle

 Tyrol Grey is a breed of the mountain cattle from Austria. The local breed name is Tiroler Grauvieh; the international breed name is “Tyrol Grey”. Additional terms like “Tyrolese Grey Cattle” and “Grey Alpine” are found. Tyrol Grey is one of the oldest, rare cattle breeds of the High Alpine regions of Austria which has adapted to the mountain climate over centuries. Tyrol Grey is a multi-purpose breed for milk and beef and has excellent performance and meat quality.

The uni-coloured coat of Tyrol Grey is silver to iron-grey, sometimes brownish-grey, with certain lighter and darker spots. The skin is black. Special characteristics are a red shock of hair, black horn tips and black, hard hooves. Adult animals have a withers height of 130 cm for bulls and 125 cm for cows. Live weight is about 2,000lbs. for bulls and 1,200lbs. for cows

Tyrol Grey cattle are characterized by a good forage instinct and feed conversion. They are robust, long-living, very fertile and lively. Moreover, they are tolerant to extreme conditions such as low temperatures, extreme variation in temperature and high solar irradiation.
The ancestors of today’s breed Tyrol Grey were kept in this region as early as about 1000 B.C. In the Schmirntal (Schmirn Valley) the keeping of cattle on pastures is known from pre-Roman times. The Roman authors Strabo (about 63 B.C. – 23 A.D.) and Plinius the Elder (about 23 B.C. – 79 A.D.) reported on the high milk yield of these “Alpine cows”. The domestic animal breed Grey Alpine (“Grey cattle”) was first classified in detail by F. Kaltenegger in “Die Rinder der österreichischen Alpenländer” (1879 – 1884).

Tyrol Grey is one of the oldest cattle breeds of the Alpine area. It is a particularly robust, pure-bred cattle which is well adapted to the animal husbandry of the Tyrolean alpine pastures. The extensive livestock farming of this breed over centuries has substantially contributed to the sustainable preservation of the Tyrol’s alpine landscape.

Various historical findings suggest that the settlement of the Tyrolean Oberland started several millennia before Christ by migrating people from South-East Asia. About 1000 B.C. these people seem to have brought single-coloured cattle with short horns from West-Asia to Central Europe. This “Torfrind” (bos brachyceros) is regarded as one of the primary ancestors of today’s Grey cattle, and all Alpine breeds for that matter, including the Braunvieh and Tarentaise. The colour of some of the Torfrinder or “Peat cattle” is believed to have been red, based on archeological finds. During the Migration Period in the first century A.D., people of the  West Germanic Alemanni convederation of tribes began to settle in Switzerland and Tyrol, bringing with them large boned, silver-grey cattle believed to be descent from the Aurochse (bos primigenius).

The Tyrol Grey is regarded as a rare and endangered species of livestock today, and is therefore part of the Austrian gene protection program. In 2007, this program included 4508 head of Tyrol Grey from 1043 farms.
North Tyrol, the origin of the Tyrol Grey, is characterized by alpine pastures which extend over nearly half of the Tyrolean area. The mountainous alpine area is characterized by particularly steep slopes and short vegetation periods. The local plant communities may vary extremely as they are strongly influenced by the soil and the climatic conditions prevailing on the respective altitudes. In addition to North Tyrol, populations of the breed Tyrol Grey can be found throughout Austria, South Tyrol (Italy), Switzerland, and Bavaria. The native region for the Tyrol Grey cattle is usually covered with snow for about 70 days in the lower areas, and for about 190 days in high-alpine regions. The cattle are kept on pastures or alpine pastures for about half a year. During winter, the animals are kept in loose housing stables, and fed mainly with on-farm hay. Tyrol Grey cattle are typically held on small mountain farms keeping fewer than 4 head of cattle per holding on average. The average farm size is 7 hectares, of which nearly all of it is grassland. About 50% of the farmers have less than 5 hectares available for on-farm fodder production, and every year over 80% of all Grey cattle are kept on alpine pastures during summer. Over half of the farmers operate according to the principles of organic farming.