preserve the original Braunvieh type had begun in Germany in 1988 with the formation of the . In Italy it is known as the Bruna Italiana Vecchio Ceppo. In other countries The Braunvieh has given rise to several European cattle breeds in the Alpine region, in Austria, in Germany, in Italy and in Spain, as well as the Brown Swiss in the United States. The Montafon of the southern Vorarlberg of Austria was of medium weight, muscular, usually brown with a pale dorsal stripe. In 1923 the name was changed to Voralberger Braunvieh. The Bruna Alpina or Bruna Italiana is distributed throughout Italy. Braunvieh were imported from central Switzerland from the sixteenth century, and diffused from the Alpine valleys into the flat country of Lombardy and the Veneto – where they rapidly supplanted the mostly red-coated local breeds – and then further south as far as Calabria. In 1950 it was still the principal dairy breed of Italy, before the Frisona Italiana, the Italian Holstein-Friesian breed, achieved dominance. In Sardinia, Bruna bulls were used to cover local cows, leading to the creation of the tough and productive Sardo-Bruna. Braunvieh exported to the United States from about 1870 were bred exclusively for milk production, and developed into the modern American Brown Swiss. Characteristics The Braunvieh is a uniform brown or grey-brown in color; the nose is black and encircled by a pale ring. The horns are pale with dark points. Cows weigh some , with a height at the withers in the range ; bulls weigh on average , with an average height of . Use The Braunvieh is a dairy breed. Depending on location, milk production ranges between (in mountain regions) and litres per year. References Cattle breeds Cattle breeds originating in Switzerland