Girolando
 | |
 | |
| Conservation status | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | Brazil |
| Distribution |
|
| Standard | Associação Brasileira dos Criadores de Girolando (in Portuguese) |
| Use | milk |
| Traits | |
| Weight |
|
| Height |
|
| |
The Girolando is a Brazilian breed of dairy cattle. It is a taurindicine breed, resulting initially from cross-breeding bulls of the zebuine Indian Gir breed with Holstein cows of European origin.[4] The coat varies from black to black-and-white. Approximately 80% of the milk production in Brazil is from Girolando or other Holstein-Gir cross-breeds.[5]: 188 The proportions of the Girolando were initially established at 3/8 Gir and 5/8 Holstein.[6]
History
[edit]In rural Brazil in the 1970s, the average milk yield of dairy cows was less than 1000 kg per lactation. Most dairy cattle were cross-breeds of European (taurus) and Asian (indicus) types, bred by natural reproduction – artificial insemination was little used; to maintain production, bulls of both types were required, placing a cost burden on farms. At a meeting in 1977 at Embrapa Gado de Leite – the dairy research station of the Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária in Coronel Pacheco, in Minas Gerais – the decision was taken to develop taurindicine hybrid bulls which might take the place of the bulls in use at that time.[6] A breed association was formed in Uberaba in 1978, the Associação dos Criadores de Gado de Leite do Triângulo Mineiro e Alto Paranaíba, usually abbreviated to Assoleite.[6][7] A programme of directed cross-breeding, Procruza, was launched in the same year by the Ministério da Agricultura, as the Brazilian agriculture ministry was then known.[6][8]
Characteristics
[edit]The proportion of the two constituent breeds of the hybrid was initially fixed at 3/8 Gir and 5/8 Holstein;[6] in the twenty-first century, the proportion of Holstein may vary from 1/4 to 7/8.[9]
Use
[edit]The cattle are reared for milk. The milk yield per lactation ranges from 2625 to 7791 kg, with an average of 5208 kg; the average milk yield per day is 17 kg. On average, cows come into milk six times in a lifetime; lactations vary in length from 155 to 385 days, with an average of 270.[2] The fat content varies from 3.7% to 4.0%, with an average of 3.9%.[2]
References
[edit]
- ↑ Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to: The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Breed data sheet: Girolando / Brazil (Cattle). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed March 2026.
- ↑ Transboundary breed: Girolando. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed March 2026.
- ↑ H.M.S. Bicalho, C.G. Pimenta, I.K.P. Mendes, H.B. Pena, E.M. Queiroz, S.D.J. Pena (2006). Determination of ancestral proportions in synthetic bovine breeds using commonly employed microsatellite markers. Genetics and Molecular Research. 5 (3): 432–437. doi:10.4238/vol5.3gmr212. Archived 13 August 2017.
- ↑ Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9781780647944.
- 1 2 3 4 5 [s.n.] ([s.d.]). Girolando: raça tropical desenvolvida no Brasil (in Portuguese). Circular Técnica 67. Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais: Embrapa Gado de Leite; Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento. Archived 23 June 2025.
- ↑ Sobre a Associação (in Portuguese). Vila São Cristóvão, Uberaba, Minas Gerais: Associação Brasileira dos Criadores de Girolando. Archived 12 December 2025.
- ↑ Sobre a Raça (in Portuguese). Vila São Cristóvão, Uberaba, Minas Gerais: Associação Brasileira dos Criadores de Girolando. Archived 16 January 2026.
- ↑ Nomenclatura Exterior, Tipo Ideal, Glossário e Padrão Racial (in Portuguese). Vila São Cristóvão, Uberaba, Minas Gerais: Associação Brasileira dos Criadores de Girolando. Archived 12 December 2025.