The Rendena is a breed of

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

from the

Trentino Trentino (), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento (; ; ), is an Autonomous province#Italy, autonomous province of Italy in the Northern Italy, country's far north. Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the Regions of Italy, region of Tren ...

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

Padova Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of ...

, Trento,

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

and

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) 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 Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

. 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 ...

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 Veneto, officially the Region of Veneto, is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the Northeast Italy, north-east of the country. It is the fourth most populous region in Italy, with a population of 4,851,851 as of 2025. Venice is t ...

summers on the Altopiano di Asiago.

History

The Rendena originates from the area of the Val Rendena and the Giudicarie, 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 Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests (), or MASAF, is an Italian government department. It was formed in 1946 as the Ministero dell'Agricoltura e delle Foreste ("Ministry of Agriculture and Forests"), and following the refe ...

, the Italian ministry of agriculture.

Use

The Rendena is a good milk producer. Yields from

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

("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