Norwegian Red
The Norwegian Red or italic=no is a Norwegian breed of dairy cattle. It was formed in 1961 through successive mergers of various traditional and regional breeds. In 2016 it accounted for approximately 85% of the cattle in the country, and about 99% of the national dairy herd.
The cattle may be either horned or naturally polled; despite the breed name, the coat may be either red-and-white or black-and-white.
History
The Norwegian Red is a modern composite breed. It was formed in 1961 by merging two existing Norwegian breeds, the Red Polled Eastland or italic=no and the Norwegian Red-and-White or italic=no. Each of these two was already a composite breed: the Red Polled Eastland was recorded from 1892 and later underwent cross-breeding with Swedish Red-and-White and Ayrshire, with some influence from the Dutch Black Pied; the Norwegian Red-and-White, established in 1939, also derived from cross-breeding of Swedish Red-and-White and Ayrshire, but had absorbed the Hedmark and Red Troender. The Red Troender, in turn, derived from cross-breeding in the nineteenth century of local Troender and Røros cattle with Ayrshire stock; it had later absorbed the Målselv breed of Tromsø and northern Norway. The Dølafe, originating from local cattle of south-east Norway, Telemark and Ayrshire, was merged into the Norwegian Red in 1963. It was followed in 1968 by the South and West Norwegian or italic=no, which had been created in 1947 by fusion of the Vestland Fjord, the Vestland Red Polled and the Lyngdal.The cattle have been exported to many countries, among them Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States and Madagascar, where exports began in the 1960s, and where by 2003 there were over head.
Characteristics
The cattle may be either horned or naturally polled; despite the breed name, the coat may be either red-and-white or black-and-white. Average height at the withers is about for cows and about for bulls; average bodyweights are and respectively.Use
The cattle are reared principally for milk. The average annual yield is per cow, with an average fat content of.The Norwegian Red has been used to improve some characteristics of other dairy breeds such as the Friesian.