The Meuse-Rhine-Issel or Meuse-Rhine-Yssel () is a Dutch

breed A breed is a specific group of breedable domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist seve ...

of dual-purpose cattle, reared both for

meat Meat is animal Tissue (biology), tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistory. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of vertebrates, including chickens, sheep, ...

and for milk. It falls within the Lowland-Pied group of North European cattle; it is red-pied, and of medium-large size.

History

The Meuse-Rhine-Issel developed principally in two areas of Holland: the eastern part of the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Noord-Brabant in the southern part of the country, where the rivers

Meuse The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a total length of . History From 1301, the upper ...

and

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

flow; and the area of the river

IJssel The IJssel (; ) is a Dutch distributary of the river Rhine that flows northward and ultimately discharges into the IJsselmeer (before the 1932 completion of the Afsluitdijk known as the Zuiderzee), a North Sea natural harbour. It more immediatel ...

in the east, mainly in

Salland Salland (; Low Saxon: ''Sallaand'') is a historical dominion in the west and north of the present Dutch province of Overijssel. Nowadays Salland is usually used to indicate a region corresponding to the part of the former dominion more or less to ...

and

Twente Twente ( , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel. Twente is most likely named after the Tuihanti or Tvihanti, a Germanic people ...

in the province of

Overijssel Overijssel (; ; ; ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the eastern part of the country. The province's name comes from the perspective of the Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht, Episcopal principality of Utrecht ...

, but extending southwards into the

Achterhoek The Achterhoek (; ) is a cultural region and COROP area in the Eastern Netherlands. Its name (meaning "rear-corner") is geographically appropriate because the area lies in the easternmost part of the province of Gelderland and therefore in the e ...

Gelderland Gelderland ( , ), also known as Guelders ( ) in English, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands, located in the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Nethe ...

and northwards into the province of

Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Jan ...

. It is named for the three rivers. It was registered in the

herd-book A breed registry, also known as a herdbook, studbook or register, in animal husbandry, the hobby of animal fancy, is an official list of animals within a specific breed whose parents are known. Animals are usually registered by their breeders wh ...

of the from 1874; it was recognised as a breed in 1905, and a separate herd-book was started. Numbers are in steep decline: in the 1970s there were more than half a million of the cattle, representing approximately a quarter of the total number of dairy cattle in the Netherlands; numbers fell to in 1999 and to in 2004. In 2021 the total population reported to

DAD-IS DAD-IS is the acronym for the Domestic Animal Diversity Information System, a tool developed and maintained by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as a part of its programme for management of animal genetic resources for ...

was 9938. Over doses of

semen Semen, also known as seminal fluid, is a bodily fluid that contains spermatozoon, spermatozoa which is secreted by the male gonads (sexual glands) and other sexual organs of male or hermaphrodite, hermaphroditic animals. In humans and placen ...

are kept in cryo-conservation; they represent almost 250 bulls, of which about one-fifth are from before 1980. In the twentieth century the Meuse-Rhine-Issel was one of the five breeds approved for

cross-breeding A crossbreed is an organism with purebred parents of two different breeds, varieties, or populations. A domestic animal of unknown ancestry, where the breed status of only one parent or grandparent is known, may also be called a crossbreed though ...

with the British Dairy Shorthorn, leading to the development of the Blended Red-and-White Shorthorn and the virtual disappearance of the traditional Shorthorn breed. The Dutch Improved Red Pied (Dutch: Verbeterd Roodbont Vleesras) is a modern meat breed derived from dual-purpose Meuse-Rhine-Issel stock. The Brandrood IJsellvee is a modern breed which preserves the old colouring of the Meuse-Rhine-Issel, dark red with little white.

Characteristics

The Meuse-Rhine-Issel falls within the Lowland-Pied group of North European cattle; it is red-pied, and of medium-large size.

References

{{reflist, refs= Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007)
List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources
annex t
''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. 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. .n.(26 June 2020)
Rassenlijst Nederlandse landbouwhuisdierrassen
(in Dutch). Wageningen: Centrum voor Genetische Bronnen Nederland. Accessed May 2022. Yvette de Haas, Rita Hoving-Bolink, Myrthe Maurice-van Eijndhoven, Debbie Bohte-Wilhelmus, Henk Sulkers, Sipke-Joost Hiemstra (2009)
MRIJ breed assessment
Wageningen: Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands = Centrum voor Genetische Bronnen Nederland. Accessed May 2022. Henri Woelders, Ina Hulsegge, Henk Sulkers, Rita Hoving, Sipke-Joost Hiemstra (2009)
Cryoconservation of cattle breeds in The Netherlands
Wageningen: Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands = Centrum voor Genetische Bronnen Nederland. Accessed May 2022. Breed data sheet: Maas-Rijn-IJssel / Netherlands (Cattle)
Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed May 2022. D.S. Buchanan and J.A. Lenstra (2015). Breeds of Cattle. In: Dorian J. Garrick, Anatoly Ruvinsky (editors) (2015). ''The Genetics of Cattle'', second edition. Wallingford: CABI. {{ISBN, 9781780642215, pages 33–66. Sipke Joost Hiemstra, Yvette de Haas, Asko Mäki-Tanila, Gustavo Gandini (editors) (2010)
''Local cattle breeds in Europe: Development of policies and strategies for self-sustaining breeds''
Wageningen Academic. {{isbn, 9789086866977. {{doi, 10.3921/9789086866977. Accessed May 2022.
EuReCa. Accessed May 2022. Marleen Felius (1995)
''Cattle Breeds: An Encyclopedia''
Doetinchem, Netherlands: Misset. {{ISBN, 9789054390176. Maas-Rijn-IJsselvee (MRIJ)
(in Dutch). Wageningen: Stichting Zeldzame Huisdierrassen. Accessed May 2022. Dairy cattle breeds