The maremmana cow

Wild, strong, adaptable: the first notable features of this breed can easily be translated even to the men who lived in the region of this very special animal. Let's uncover together this amazingly beautiful cattle who is gaining once again so much interest for the organic livestock industry.

Some historical informations

It looks like this species had to take a long journey through europe before getting to the pastures of Tuscany and of the northern Lazio: the Maremma breed, according to some, comes from the Podolico one, another species of animals descending themselves from the uro breed ("Bos primigenius") described by Julius Caesar in the De Bello Gallico. During the barbarian invasions of the fifth century, miscegenetion of local specimens with the ones from Podolia (a region of the modern Ukraine), originated different species of cattle, one of which happened to be in the Maremma.

Not everyone, however, agree with this version: the Egyptian, Minoan and Etruscan findings of both pictorial and plastiques representations, lead to believe the theories about the coexistence of two races in the territory from long before the invasions of the fifth century. Anyone can observe examples that would strengthen this theory by looking at the frescoes of "the tomb of the bulls of Caere" (Cerveteri), "the askos Villanova" at the Museum of Tarquinia, the taurine head in the Vetulonia museum, or even the cattle heads in the "Bronze Basin Bernardini tomb" at Palestrina (680-650 a.C.) exposed by the Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia.

The "maremmana" breed

Strong and adaptable, as we said earlier. Yes, cows and bulls of this breed are able to graze in the wild on all seasons and they can use the poor or dry soils feeding on resources that other races would not be able to: during winter they will use the woods as shelter and eat shrubs, in the spring they can use better pastures to have resources available for breastfeeding calves. During summer you can easily see them on wetlands, woodlands, meadows and grasslands. This, combined with excellent resistance to drought, predators and parasites, makes the maremmana cow extremely economical to maintain and perfectly suited to the pre-twentieth century environmental conditions of the Maremma, consisted of large malaria affected meadow areas.

Let's not be mileaded by the poor environment this breed used to live in. Maybe even because of the fascination that living wild has on men, it is difficult not to be amazed by the beauty and grandeur of the specimens of cows and bulls of this race.

The beautiful gray coat (darker on the males and lighter on females) contrasting with the slate colored muzzle, it develops on 4 to 6 months old calves that slowly lose their wheaten color. The long horns (in some specimens they reach 1 meter) are crescent shaped in males and lyra shaped in females, the skeleton is massive and it gives the animal a solid and strong aspect. The majestic shape is underlined by the development of a broad chest and a short, muscular neck; the back and loins are strong and straight, the croup is broad and long while the limbs have exceptionally hard clogs.

Breeding

Initially made by many cattles used for a threefold purpose (milk, labor, meat), the maremmana cow is now made by less than 10,000 cattles between bulls, cows, heifers and calves (source: ANABIC ). The mechanization of agriculture has indeed led to a slow but inexorable decline of the cattles present both in Tuscany and Lazio although, recently, southern Spain and Central America breeders have shown some interest in its introduction in their warmer and forbidding lands. Moreover, the increasing demand for organic livestock products is leading to significant changes.

The mating period begins in spring with a ratio of about 1 bull every 20 cows. Calves are weaned in autumn to be branded during the following spring at the historical "merca" ceremony, great pride occasion for the farmers and greatly appreciated by the curious tourists.

We also want to mention the calves high survival rate (about 98% of chances to bring it at weaning age), the ease of breeding without assistance, the excellent milk production (10-12 liters per day) and the ability to defend itself from attacks and from small predators.

Last but not least, the maremmana cows have a quite long life span easily reaching 15-16 years although the calves development is usually slower despite the abundance of milk. As an example: an 18 months old maremmana calf weighs half as much as the ones from other cow races (about 350 kg compared to an average of 600 kg). Adult cattles weigh between 700 and 1200 kg for a bull and from 600 to 700 kg for a cow.