The Rendena is a breed of

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ...

from the

Trentino Trentino ( lld, Trentin), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous regio ...

, in north-eastern Italy, now raised principally in the provinces of

Padova Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

, Trento,

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...

and

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the '' Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a t ...

. It is particularly suited to

transhumant Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (''vertical transhumance''), it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower vall ...

management; almost all the stock in the Trentino spends the summer months on the mountain pastures of the Val Rendena, and more than half of that in the

Veneto it, Veneto (man) it, Veneta (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...

summers on the Altopiano di Asiago.

History

The Rendena originates from the area of the

Val Rendena Val Rendena erman:Randentalis the valley of the Sarca river in Trentino, northern Italy. The valley is part of the Giudicarie. Main towns include Spiazzo Rendena and Pinzolo Pinzolo ( Lombard: ''Pinsöl'') is a small town and '' comune'' situ ...

and the

Giudicarie 200px, Territory of Giudicarie (green) in Trentino province (gray) Giudicarie (also ''Val Giudicarie'' and ''Valli Giudicarie'', german: Judikarien) is an area of Western Trentino, northern Italy, which includes the upper courses of the river ...

, where the first documented importation of stock from Switzerland was in 1712. By the end of the nineteenth century the breed numbered more than 200,000 head, was distributed throughout the Trentino and the Veneto, and had become the principal milk breed of the area. It suffered a major decline in the early 20th century, both as a result of the two World Wars and because of political pressures to replace it with the Bruna Alpina breed. From 1942, use of Rendena bulls for breeding was forbidden by law, and the population fell to a few thousand head. A breeders' association, the Associazione Nazionale Allevatori Bovini di Razza Rendena, was formed in 1976. A population of 6986 was reported in 2007. The Rendena is not among the sixteen minor Italian cattle breeds of limited diffusion recognised and protected by the

Ministero delle Politiche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali The Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, it, Ministero delle Politiche Agricole, Alimentari e Forestali, italic=no or MiPAAF, is an Italian government department. It was formed in 1946 as the Ministero dell'Agricoltura e delle F ...

, the Italian ministry of agriculture.

Use

The Rendena is a good milk producer. Yields from

primiparous In biology and human medicine, gravidity and parity are the number of times a woman is or has been pregnant (gravidity) and carried the pregnancies to a viable gestational age (parity). These terms are usually coupled, sometimes with additional te ...

("first-calf") cows that spend 100 days or more on high alpine pasture average 4733 kg per lactation; the milk has 3.50% fat and 3.36% protein. Cows that receive cattle-feed year-round average over 6000 kg per lactation. Razza Rendena cheese may be made only from the milk of Rendena cows, which is also used in the production of Spressa delle Giudicarie DOP cheese. Rendena calves may be slaughtered as milk veal, or at the age of 12–13 months, when they weigh 400–450 kg and yield 58–60% of good quality meat.

References

{{Cattle breeds of Italy Ark of Taste foods