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| Country of origin | Swiss Alps |
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| Use | Dairy cattle |
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| Height |
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| Coat | Solid grey-brown |
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Brune, formerly known as Brune des Alpes, is a Swiss cattle breed. It is descended from the Swiss Braunvieh breed imported to France in the 18th and 19th centuries.
It is a dairy breed adapted to the mountain climate, but also to the heat. Its high-quality milk is used to make cheese.
The Brune des Alpes is a breed that appears to be particularly ancient, as evidenced by fossils found in the pile dwellings of Swiss lakes. It belongs to the brown branch, and appears to be descended from crosses between bos taurus primigenus, or aurochs, and bos taurus crachyceros, a more recent subspecies of cattle. These cross-breeds date back to the Neolithic period and could be the origin of most European cattle. Various hypotheses have been put forward concerning its exact origin, which remains poorly understood. It may have arrived in Switzerland with people from the East after the fall of the Roman Empire.[1] In any case, the breed has long been established in eastern Switzerland. Here, it has been subjected to the harsh selection of the Alpine valleys and the ruggedness of the mountain pastures for over a thousand years. The natural boundaries formed by mountain ranges and rivers, and the absence of communication routes, led to the isolation of brown cattle populations. As a result, each region developed its own breed, producing blond, brown, grey, reddish-brown and even piebald variants in contact with Simmental, the other dominant breed in Switzerland, which is very present today in the west of the country. The weight, build and size of the animals also vary according to the region in which they are found, adapting to the fertility of the soil and the rigors of the climate.[1] By the 16th century, twelve different types of Brune had been catalogued. Limited by a crude diet and fairly primitive breeding methods, cattle of the time were only used for work and meat production, and remained of secondary importance to the population.[2]
A rigorous selection process aimed at keeping the most beautiful specimens was set up in the 17th century at the Einsiedeln abbey kennels in the canton of Schwyz, which can be considered the cradle of the breed.[3] The monastery then supplied breeding stock to breeders in the canton. As a result of this initial selection process, the size of the animals quickly increased.[3]
The next step was to standardize the herd and continue to select animals more carefully. From 1828, the canton of St. Gallen regulated the choice of bulls, and the canton of Schwyz awarded a premium to bulls with good conformation and color. The herd continued to improve in quality, and the breed gradually took shape, with the first Brown breed competition held in Langenthal in 1868, shortly before the canton of Schwyz created the herd book entitled "registre du noble animal de race Brune". At the end of the 19th century, the breed's numerous sub-varieties were hunted down, and in 1893 the premiums granted to these local populations were abolished, before the various local unions were brought together to form the Swiss Federation of the Brown Alpine Breed in 1897. The federation gradually succeeded in homogenizing the breed.[3] Improved farming practices and breeding methods, the inclusion of higher-quality fodder in the animal's diet, combined with the efforts made in selection, led to an increase in performance.[4] By the end of the nineteenth century, the brown breed had become a breed with interesting dairy performances, and was bred for its triple aptitude for work/milk/meat.[4]
The first Brown Alpine cattle were imported to France in 1788 at the Dienay stud farm in Seine-et-Oise and in the Côte-d'Or, where the monks of the Clairvaux abbey introduced the breed to improve the livestock from the Jurassic plateau, with little success.[2] Imports slowed down during the French Revolution and then the Empire, and only resumed in 1827, under the impetus of Auguste de Marmont, who encouraged breeders in the Châtillonnais region (Côte-d'Or) to improve their stock with Swiss bulls.[5] The Brune des Alpes met with some success in the region, and the Châtillon-sur-Seine agricultural committee decided in 1836 to import Swiss bulls every year to improve the local herd.[6] In the 1850s, Dijon's Comice d'Agriculture endorsed the choice of the Brune des Alpes breed to improve the local herd, so that only one breed would be imported and breeders would all be pulling in the same direction.[7] New bulls were imported in 1857, and again in the 1870s. However, as little effort was made to select the breed itself, the only benefit of this import policy was to improve the existing herd, and it was not until the 1900s and the development of more reasoned selection by breeders that we saw a significant improvement in the animals.[5] The breed really took shape in 1911, when the "Syndicat des Éleveurs de la Race Brune des Alpes" was created, an association based in Châtillon-sur-Seine, with the aim of creating the breed's herd-book and organizing selection to improve it.[8] On March 21, 1927, the Brune des Alpes breed was officially recognized by the French Ministry of Agriculture as a breed of foreign origin. Thanks to the dynamism of its breeders, the Châtillonnais region became a major breeding center for the Brune des Alpes, and the breed spread to the departments of Aube, Yonne, Haute-Marne and Meuse, with similar soil and climate conditions.[2]
At the same time, the Brune des Alpes was introduced into the Tarn region. Around 1850, Mr. Olombel, then mayor of Mazamet, encouraged a number of industrialists in the Castres and Mazamet areas to acquire brown cattle from Switzerland for their farms in the Montagne Noire. Initial results were very satisfactory, and cattle imports continued for some twenty years.[9] Another breeder, Mr. Rives, continued this type of import from 1875 onwards in Escoussols, initially to crossbreed brown cattle with these Anglès cows, without however seeking to obtain purebred Alpine browns. His son, Charles Rives, continued his work, but in view of the better performance displayed by the imported animals, he continued the cross-breeding to such an extent that he eventually obtained a brown herd with fixed characteristics.[9] In particular, he praised the Brune's ability to adapt to the local climate, and its capacity to produce 2,600 to 3,000 L of milk in sometimes mediocre rearing conditions. Her milk is well suited to cheese processing, and she produces veal calves weighing 130 to 200 kg at three and a half months, while helping out in the fields.[10] Other breeders, Mr. Bourrel and Mr. Lamourelles, followed suit in Montolieu and Saissac respectively, but chose to import male and female breeding stock so as to have a purebred brown herd from the outset, a much less economical but quicker method. Breeders followed the lead of these few influential breeders, and little by little the brown breed took root in the region. To organize a judicious selection of animals, a syndicate was created in 1923 on the northern slopes of the Montagne Noire (Mazamet, Saint-Amons and Labruigière),[9] followed a few years later by another syndicate created on the initiative of Mr. Rives for the southern slopes, and adapted to local climatic and geological conditions.[11] These two syndicates, aiming to improve the breed through selection, guarantee its purity and ensure its propagation, adopted the standard established by the Châtillonais breeders. Once again, from this second cradle, the breed spread into the surrounding area, establishing itself not only in the Tarn and Aude departments, but also in Ariège, Gers, Aveyron and Haute-Garonne.[9]
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the Brune remained a very minor breed in France, whose numbers did not appear in the various agricultural statistics until 1932. It is best known for its triple aptitude for milk, meat and work, and its presence is highly localized throughout the country. However, the breed's adaptability and high production levels enabled it to expand rapidly in France from the two cradles where it was already well established. In 1932, there were 47,000 head of brown cattle, then 88,000 in 1943, rising to 262,000 in 1958.[12] The breed reached its apogee in the 1960s, with numbers at their peak and a range that gradually expanded around the two cradles. But from the 1970s onwards, Prim'Holstein and Montbéliarde replaced other dairy cows almost everywhere in France, thanks to their superior productivity and well-organized selection, while selection for Brown cows was just beginning to bear fruit.[13] The last quarter of the 20th century saw a decline in the number of brown cows, from 96,500 in 1979 to 42,100 in 1988 and 23,400 in 2000.[12] This fall in numbers is also due to the introduction of milk quotas in 1984, which led to a concentration of the herd and a significant drop in the number of dairy cows, and affected the Brown more than breeds such as Prim'Holstein or Montbéliarde.[14] Locally, the Brune is competing with Simmental, Abondance and Tarentaise breeds, whose products are well-priced.[13]
The coat is uniformly brown, ranging from dark gray to silver-gray, except for the muzzle, which is lighter. The tips of the horns are black. Mucous membranes are dark. The inside of the ears is hairy and white, reminiscent of plush. This is a large cow, measuring 1.4 m at the withers for 650 to 850 kg for females and 1.5 m for 1,000 kg for males.
Once appreciated for its triple aptitude for milk, meat and work, selection and the current context have led the breed to specialize in milk production.
The Brune's dairy potential has always been recognized. In fact, as early as the 19th century, the milk production of this breed was noted in Switzerland. The Einsielden convent herd, for example, produced an average of 2,800 L of milk per cow per year between 1872 and 1903, which was very good for the time.[15] Average yields of over 4,700 L were recorded in the Swiss lowlands in 1936, and one cow, Maggi, was known in the 1920s to have produced an exceptional 9,653 L of milk in one year, with 3.8% fat content. Brown cows are also renowned for maintaining good production despite difficult conditions, making them a popular breed in mountainous areas and poor soils. In Switzerland in 1936, for example, a herd was registered with an average annual milk production of 3,800 L at 2,300 m altitude. Its hardiness and ability to adapt to a poor diet set it apart from breeds such as the Normande, which was more productive at the end of the war but saw its production fall sharply in less favorable conditions than the rich pastures of Normandy. That's why the Brune was so easy to establish at the time in regions with poor soils.[7][8][16]
Brune milk is renowned for its ability to be transformed into cheese. It contains a good proportion of nitrogenous matter, without being excessively fatty. When serious attention began to be paid to protein levels in the 1960s, this breed became particularly attractive to breeders.[17]
It is classified as a mixed breed, but above all it has good dairy potential, with an average production of 7,800 kg of milk per lactation. It is rich in fat (41 g/l butterfat) and protein (33.7 g/l), making it ideal for the production of quality cheeses. Its cheesemaking qualities are also due to the composition of its caseins: 64% of animals have the gene enabling them to produce the B variant of Kappa-casein, which favors cheese processing.[18]
The breed was once renowned for its beef qualities. In the 17th century, the convent of Einsiedeln in Switzerland valued the fat oxen that were sent to Zurich, as well as the calves that could be sold before the age of two.[19] In his 1949 description of the breed, Huguier considers that it is not very well suited to meat production. It is a bony animal, with low carcass yields (rarely exceeding 55 %), meat with little marbling, and calves that are not very precocious and not much sought-after by butchers. From this point of view, it is well below other mixed breeds such as Normande, and of course specialized beef breeds such as Limousine and Charolaise, but still has slightly greater potential than specialized dairy breeds.[7] In fact, its growth rate is slightly higher than that of specialized dairy breeds. From 1968 onwards, seeds of Brown Swiss, the American version of the Brown, were imported into France, and with this decision, controversial for some breeders who wanted to preserve the butchering potential of their animals, the breed moved towards dairy specialization at the expense of conformation and butchering aptitudes.[20] As a result, the breed became increasingly specialized in milk production, and conformation was gradually reduced.[21]
The Brune is also appreciated for its fertility, longevity, walking qualities, endurance and adaptation to the open air in the mountains. It is also an early breed, and since its arrival in south-western France it has been reputed to be able to be bred from 18 months, compared with 24 months for the Gasconne des Pyrénées and the Aure et Saint-Girons.[22] The Brune was also renowned for its working qualities, and although it lacked the stamina of breeds like the Gascon, it was efficient while maintaining a decent milk production.[15] Its oxen were not as powerful as those of the Limousin, Salers or Garonnais, but were more hardy. They were appreciated for their lively temperament and unobstructed gait. Their black hooves wore very little and stood iron well.[7] They seem to be much better able than other dairy cows to withstand high temperatures.[23] With the advent of mechanical traction shortly before the Second World War, however, they were gradually phased out of use for this purpose.[16]
The Alpine Brown is also able to cope with poor pastures.[22] These hardy qualities have played a major role in its successful adaptation in France, in the Châtillonais region where poor soils were mainly home to sheep before the arrival of the Brune, and all over the world.[23] Thanks to this hardiness, calving is often easier than with other dairy cows. Its resistance to heat means it can adapt to tropical and subtropical climates.[23][24]
In the 19th century, the selection of the brown breed was first carried out by a handful of breeders, who crossed it with local cattle and sought to preserve the breed's three aptitudes: work capacity, meat production and milk production, a triple aptitude in which the brown excels. At the time, selection was not very advanced. It became a little more organized at the beginning of the 20th century, when Châtillonais breeders got together in 1911 to form the "Syndicat des éleveurs de la race Brune des Alpes", one of whose first tasks was to create the herd-book and keep it up to date.[25] Based on the same principle, a number of similar syndicates sprang up in the various regions where the Brune breed was established, so that by 1949 there were 21 of them.[25] These unions then joined forces to form federations, which in turn placed themselves under the aegis of the Livre généalogique de la race Brune des Alpes, based in Paris since 1933 and managed by the zootechnics laboratory of the Institut National d'Agronomie.[7] The studbook sets the breed's selection objectives, promotes the breed and manages animal registration.[25] In the 1960s, the herd book was closed to the entry of new males, but females could still be registered on an initial basis, provided they had a score of at least 70 and a milk production of 3,000 L during the first lactation or 3,500 L during the second, at 35 g/l fat. Animals are entered permanently at one year of age, provided their parents are entered, they have a score of at least 75, and their dam produces 4,250 L of milk at 37 g/l during one lactation.[26] In addition, certain animals with exceptional production characteristics have distinctive signs in the herd-book: females have one, two or three L's inscribed in red on the pedigree depending on whether they produce more than 3,000 L, 4,500 L or 5,500 L of milk at 35 g/L fat in 305 days, and bulls have a red R on their pedigree if their conformation exceeds 84 points, their ancestors have been registered for at least four generations and their dams have produced an average of at least 4,750 L of milk over 3 successive lactations.[26]
Selection is made easier by the development of artificial insemination, which enables certain bulls with exceptional qualities to be distributed on a large scale. In order to identify the breed's best bulls, the herd-book and insemination cooperatives set up a testing station in 1961.[8]
In 1962, the Brune herd-book joined the Fédération Nationale du Contrôle de Performances des animaux de boucherie. The aim was to maintain a good balance between meat and milk production. We look for animals with good conformation, growth potential and feed efficiency. At the same time, however, the herd book was considering importing American Brown Swiss semen, a breed equivalent to the Brown, but which had been selected exclusively for its milk production, to the detriment of the animals' conformation.[17] In 1968, American seed was imported in large numbers, and the breed's governing bodies, despite the protests of some breeders, made a clear choice to orient the brown breed towards dairy production, and the breed gradually began to specialize from that date onwards.[20]
The Brune is a breed found all over the world, with around 10 million head (counting all animals, not just those registered in a selection scheme), including 3 million in Europe. As such, the Swiss Brown is the world's 2nd most important dairy breed after the Holstein. This is due to its high milk production and ability to adapt to all climates and environments. It is found throughout Europe, and particularly in the Alps. The largest herds are found in Switzerland (220,000 registered animals), Germany (220,000), Italy (90,000) and Austria (60,000), as well as in France (16,000) and Spain (2,000). It is also very present in North America, with 20,000 registered animals in the United States and 1,500 in Canada. It is also found in South America, in Brazil, Chile and Argentina, in North Africa, in Asia in crossbreeding with Indian breeds, and in Africa, mainly in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Zaire and South Africa. Resolutely international, it has a very broad selection base of around 600,000 animals.[27]
In the 19th century, their breed attracted the interest of their neighbors, who began exporting their cattle to surrounding regions. France's brown herd comprises some 17,000 cows,[27] spread over three zones: north-east (Aube, Côte-d'Or), south of the Massif Central (Tarn) and north of the Pyrenees (Ariège). It is a major contributor to the renown of AOC cheeses from Burgundy and Champagne (langres, époisses, chaource), and has proved its adaptability in Tarn and Ariège. In the 1950s and 1960s, the breed expanded around its two cradles: to the north, it spread to the departments of Aube and Yonne, and to the south, to the Pyrénées-Orientales, Haute-Garonne, Ariège and Aveyron, with a major new focus in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, south of Bayonne. It continued this slow spread, and by 1970 was found in all the Pyrenean departments (Hautes-Pyrénées, Pyrénées-Orientales, Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Ariège), but also in Tarn, Gers, Lot, Tarn-et-Garonne, Aude, Hérault and Aveyron.[28][29] However, from the 1970s onwards, the breed began to decline in its cradles of origin, where it faced stiff competition from Prim'Holstein and Simmental in the north, Prim'Holstein in the Pyrenees and Prim'Holstein and Montbéliarde in the Tarn and surrounding departments. In decline in areas where it was once in the majority, the Brune is now appearing in new regions such as the Alps, where it competes with the Tarentaise and Abondance, and since the 1990s in the west of the country (Brittany, Pays de la Loire and Normandy), where its numbers remain scattered but are gradually increasing.[27]
