The Girolando is a Brazilian breed of dairy cattle. It is a taurindicine breed, resulting initially from cross-breeding bulls of the zebuine Indian Gir breed with Holstein cows of European origin. The coat varies from black to black-and-white. Approximately 80% of the milk production in Brazil is from Girolando or other Holstein-Gir cross-breeds. The proportions of the Girolando were initially established at 3/8 Gir and 5/8 Holstein.
History
In rural Brazil in the 1970s, the average milk yield of dairy cows was less than per lactation. Most dairy cattle were cross-breeds of European (taurus) and Asian (indicus) types, bred by natural reproduction – artificial insemination was little used; to maintain production, bulls of both types were required, placing a cost burden on farms. At a meeting in 1977 at – the dairy research station of the Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária in Coronel Pacheco, in Minas Gerais – the decision was taken to develop taurindicine hybrid bulls which might take the place of the bulls in use at that time. A breed association was formed in Uberaba in 1978, the , usually abbreviated to . A programme of directed cross-breeding, , was launched in the same year by the , as the Brazilian agriculture ministry was then known.
Characteristics
The proportion of the two constituent breeds of the hybrid was initially fixed at 3/8 Gir and 5/8 Holstein; in the twenty-first century, the proportion of Holstein may vary from 1/4 to 7/8.
Use
The cattle are reared for milk. The milk yield per lactation ranges from , with an average of ; the average milk yield per day is . On average, cows come into milk six times in a lifetime; lactations vary in length from days, with an average of 270. The fat content varies from , with an average of .
References