Friday 28 October 2016

Impressive Tauros bull at Maashorst

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 interesting to know the nature of the cows he is grazing with. I have been thinking about which combination of Tauros breeds would be ideal for this bull to produce potentially very good-looking animals. Maronesa would be very beneficial for the horn shape (inwards curve, orientation), but would also reduce the size and skull length and I don't know if there are any grown Maronesa F1 crosses so far. Another Maremmana x Pajuna as mating partner for this bull has potential, but probably also the best of such "true F2" would probably lack a satisfying inwards curve of the horns and would still have a large dewlap. Also, the risk of the offspring showing diluted coat colours is 1:2 respectively 3:1 (depending on how dominant/recessive the diluting factors are). A Highland crossbreed would add horn volume and density of the winter coat, but the negative traits of Highland are obvious as well. 
But I think it is most likely that this bull was placed among cows of various combinations (like in other herds), therefore I am looking forwards to see the offspring of this bull. 

2 comments:

  1. Woha, he looks really impressive!
    But even though Pajuna and Maremmano are tall breeds, he doesn't seem too be very tall compared to the other individual on the last picture.
    Does Highland influence really increase horn volume? The Highlands I've seen so far all had yes wide but rather thin horns.
    By the way, great to hear from you more often again! And thanks for keeping us up to date!


    Best regards
    Ursus Major

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  2. Hi, me again. Since I haven't found another way to contact you I'm gonna write it as a comment.
    Just yesterday I found several articles from 18. repectively 19. October 2016. Topic was the "Higgs Bison", so articles were about some new discoveries on the "appearance" of the wisent around 11.000 years ago. Since you already did some posts covering that subjectI figured it might be of interest for you (if you didn't knew about it already).

    Best Regards
    Ursus Major

    ReplyDelete