Piemontese Cattle

The Piemontese cattle originate from the Piemonte area in the North-Western part of Italy. Piemonte means: “at the foot of the mountains” (The Alps). Here the breed is very common, mostly in the valleys, but also in the mountains. The first import of breeding animals from Italy to Denmark took place in 1989. Later imports, together with reproduction, have now brought the number of purebreed Piemontese animals in Denmark to around 500. Out of these 200 are cows.

 

Description of the breed

The temperament of the animals is very calm and friendly. This makes the breed very qualified and desirable to all categories of farmers.

The colour of the newborn calf is almost golden brown. However, a couple of months later the colour will change to white or a light grey tone. When growing older, the bulls will become dark grey with black parts, especially on their head and neck. The skin is thin and fine.The body is very muscular with well-marked muscles and with no fat. The breed has got the so-called double musculature, which is developed by the calves at an age of 3-4 weeks. The animals are long and harmonious with fine limbs and a very fine bone structure. They have a small head with beautiful dark eyes, and a dark tongue, too! The Piemontese animals come to a size of around 600 kg for full-grown females, and 1000 kg for a full-grown male.

 

Unique qualities

The animals have got a low food-consumption (4,58 FEF/kg) -and yet they easily gain weight. In the performance test from  2003/2004  the daily gain was 1610 g/day – and this gain is a  production of lean meat, with no fat and few bones.

In the same performance test the ultrasonic area (the muscle area of M. Long. Dorsi) is extremely high – 99,7 cm2  –  the highest of all beef breeds.

Due to the fine bone structure, the small head, thin skin and fine limbs – there is not much waste, when you slaughter a Piemontese animal. The breed has got an extremely high dressing-out %  (63-67) – with only 13-14% of bones and 1-2% fat  – and the carcasses obtain some of the highest gradings  –  EUROP  Form 12-15.  Together with the low food consumption, it will definitely give  a higher profit to the breeder.

The meat has a very low content of Cholesterol - and furthermore, the tenderness, the juiciness and the taste is just perfect! In fact the breed is having a special gene, which gives an unparallel tenderness to the meat.


Piemontese slaughtering results

The figure below shows the results from 4 average Piemontese bull calves, slaughtered at an age between 340 and 372 days. They all have a dressing-out % of 63-64, and the classification is superb.

Age (days)

EUROP Form

Fat-ness

Dressing-out %

Live weight, kg

Carcass weight, kg

 372

   15

  1

   63

   561

   354

 366

   14

  1

   63

   534

   338

 340

   15

  1

   64

   471

   301

 372

   15

  1

   64

   553

   352

Reproduction

Generally the Piemontese animals are easy calvers, because the double musculature of the calves has not developed before the birth.

However, like with other beef breeds, you have to be careful when feeding, because a fat female is more likely to get a difficult calving. It should also be considered, that the length of the pregnancy is about 10 days longer than with dairy cattle. And as the Piemontese breed has got a low food consumption to gain weight, it is likely to give calving problems, if you give too much food for the last couple of months – especially with heifers.

When crossbreeding, the statistics show that with cows you have no calving problems at all.
 

Crossbreeding

The excellent characteristics regarding meat quality has got great influence by crossbreeding with both dairy cows and beef cows. You hereby obtain a remarkable increase of muscularity, and a reduction of the fat contents of the carcass – which means a better meat  quality  -  higher dressing-out %  -  higher classification - higher profit.

And by using a Piemontese bull or semen, you are sure to have a production of meat with a unique tenderness as well.
 

Results of young beef bulls x SDM (Holstein-Fresian) 

Breed

Daily gain

g

SFU/

Kg

Dres-sing-out %

EU-ROP Form

Fat-ness

Fillet area, cm2

Pure SDM

1307

5,78

52,6

5,3

2,9

62,6

Hereford x SDM

1339

5,56

54,1

7,0

3,7

67,8

Simmental x SDM

1441

5,23

54,6

7,6

3,0

70,3

Limousine x SDM

1286

5,36

55,9

8,4

3,1

77,6

Angus x SDM

1293

5,61

53,9

7,4

3,5

64,8

Piemontese x SDM

1252

5,40

57,2

8,4

2,6

82,8

Blonde d’A x SDM

1336

5,24

55,9

8,4

2,7

74,9

Charolais x SDM

1398

5,26

54,8

8,9

2,9

74,9

Belgian Bl. x SDM

1364

5,06

56,1

9,2

2,7

78,7