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F inally, after a long waiting time and also some practical challenges, the first cross calf of the Auerrind project has been born!  It is a female Sayaguesa x Hungarian Grey calf, and perhaps the only one of its combination yet worldwide. The mother is the Hungarian Grey cow Domka, the father the deceased Sayaguesa bull Johnny.  It will be interesting to see what the horn shape is going to be like, and how dominant the red portion in its coat colour will be. Perhaps it might resemble some already existing Taurus and Tauros cows in overall looks.  The cross calf with its mother (© www.auerrind.com) Congratulations! 

U nfortunately, the Sayaguesa bull Johnny purchased by the Auerrind-Projekt, which was about to produce Sayaguesa x Chianina crosses, had an unfortunate death by the end of this sommer. But the project announced on their webpage last week that two new young Sayaguesa bulls from the same herd have been purchased and imported last week. Currently, they are in an acclimatization area with the Maremmana cows. The older one of the two, Leo, has a colour saddle on its back - a trait that is probably due to the Alistana-Sanabresa influence of its mother (10,15%). I hope that one of this bulls is going to be used for a Sayaguesa-Chianina cross herd as it was planned with Johnny, as I still think this combination has potential for rather interesting animals. Currently both bulls are grazing with the Maremmana cows for acclimatization. No information has been given so far for what kind of cross combination(s) they are going to use the bulls. I hope that at least one of them will be used to cove...

I have been rather busy with university lately, therefore the lack of activity here. I did not miss the news regarding the wisent's phylogenetic origin, but I just did not have the time to cover it properly here. Currently there is another article in preparation, on "true F" individuals from the Lippeaue which might be interesting for breeding strategies.  Now, holidays are comming, and I hope to find the time to finish those posts. And also to do some work on my new aurochs models made from polymer clay.  So please stay tuned! 

R ecently, the True Nature Foundation has announced that Carpathian water buffaloes have been released in the Danube delta of the Odessa region, Ukraine.  See here , here and here .  I already mentioned the water buffalo project of the TNF in a 2015 article . Back then, it was the intention to crossbreed domestic, locally adapted water buffalo with wild Asiatic water buffalo to achieve a mix of locally adapted and wild type traits. Seemingly this idea has been rejected, perhaps for practical reasons, since the project has announced that the recently released herd is composed of Carpathian water buffalos. Therefore they are domestic descendants of the wild Asiatic buffalo, Bubalus arnee . This species is not native in the area, but Europe once was home to Bubalus murrensis , the European water buffalo. So when domestic water buffaloes are released in Europe, it based on the assumption that both species are ecologically similar and that domestic water buffaloes can fulfill a ni...

T he cattle of the Auerrind project, Germany, have recently been moved to winter pastures because the current size of their summer areas is not yet large enough to support the whole herd during winter. In their recent post, the project released new photos of some of their stock. All of the photos are owned by Auerrind.wordpress.com. © www.auerrind.wordpress.com The a little more than two years old Chianina bull Bruno, which is to cover the two new Watussi cows next year. He is taller than grown Watussi cows already and seems to have a firm body. At this young age he is elegantly proportioned like deer, let's see what he is going to look like when he is fully grown.  © www.auerrind.wordpress.com Maua, one of the new Watussi cows from Zoo Neuwied.  © www.auerrind.wordpress.com Speranza, one of the Chianina cows. She has reached her sister's shoulder height of 165 cm now and has a great morphology - actually, only the correct colour (we are talking about very few genes here) and ...

In April of this year, Tauros cattle have been introduced into the Dutch reserve Maashorst. The breeding bull seems to be quite impressive, although its' size is not apparent from the photos. Some examples: © Wilma Heuvel © Rene van der Lee © Caroline van der Lee Based on its looks, I am pretty sure it is a Maremmana x Pajuna cross. It looks exactly like an intermediate between the two breeds and also resembles the widely publicized bull Manolo Uno of the same combination. I like the looks of this bull, especially as a first-generation cross. Compared to Manolo Uno, it has larger horns, a slenderer body and also a quite impressive hump/neck bulge. Therefore, I like the looks of this individual more than those of Manolo Uno (anyway, a first-generation cross is too early to judge anything). This bull must be of similar age, so I wonder where they have been hiding him all the time - Manolo Uno is the only grown crossbred bull they have been widely promoting so far.  It would be intere...

A fter the depressing news of Johnny's death in August, there are some good news of the Auerrind Project again. Domka, one of the three Hungarian Steppe cows of the project, is highly pregnant from Johnny the young Sayaguesa bull. This calf will be the first one of this combination in breeding back (and perhaps world wide) and I am curious on its looks. In sum, it will probably resemble some Taurus and Tauros cows a lot, but it will be interesting to see the amount of dilution in its coat, sexual dichromatism, horn orientation and so on. Of course one individual alone is not representative for the mean average of a certain breed combination. Pregnant Domka Currently, the Steppe cows are also grazing with a Cachena x Steppe cross calf. Its father is of Felix Hohmeyer's black Cachena variant and it is not going to be used for the Auerrindprojekt.  Cachena x Hungarian Steppe Another interesting photo was recently presented on auerrind.wordpress.com. It shows the breeding bull of ...