Lucerna cattle

The Lucerna is a Colombian breed of dual-purpose cattle. It is a composite breed, created in the twentieth century by cross-breeding local Criollo cattle of the Hartón breed with imported dairy cattle of European type. This was the earliest composite breed to be developed in South America.

Lucerna
Conservation status
Country of originColombia
Usedual-purpose
Traits
Weight
  • Male:
    700 kg[3]: 233 
  • Female:
    480 kg[3]: 233 
Height
  • Female:
    128 cm[3]: 233 
Coatcherry-red
  • Cattle
  • Bos (primigenius) taurus

History

The Lucerna is a composite breed, the earliest such breed to be developed in South America. It was created in the Valle del Cauca from about 1937. Local Criollo cattle of the Hartón del Valle breed were cross-bred with imported European-type dairy cattle of the Friesian and Milking Shorthorn breeds.[4]: 117 [5]: S39  By 1972 the percentages in the composite had stabilised at approximately 40% Friesian and 30% of each of Hartón and Shorthorn.[3]: 233  From the mid-1950s, breeding was aimed principally at the improvement of dairy qualities.[3]: 233 

In 1986 the Lucerna was kept on no more than fifteen farms; by the end of the century this number had tripled, and there were almost 3000 of the cattle.[3]: 233  In 2018 the total number was reported as 1028 head.[2] The conservation status of the breed is reported as "not at risk".[2] Some semen is stored, but this is apparently not for conservation but for commercial reasons.[3]: 233 

Characteristics

The Lucerna is of medium size. Cows stand some 128 cm at the withers and weigh about 480 kg; the average weight of bulls is about 700 kg. The coat is normally solid cherry-red, but is somewhat variable.[3]: 233 

Use

The milk yield is not high, averaging little over 2000 kg in a lactation of approximately 300 days.[3]: 233 

References
  1. Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to 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.
  2. Breed data sheet: Lucerna / Colombia (Cattle). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed September 2022.
  3. 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.
  4. Marleen Felius (1995). Cattle Breeds: An Encyclopedia. Doetinchem, Netherlands: Misset. ISBN 9789054390176.
  5. Marleen Felius, Marie-Louise Beerling, David S. Buchanan, Bert Theunissen, Peter A. Koolmees and Johannes A. Lenstra (2014). On the History of Cattle Genetic Resources. Diversity 6 (4): 705–750. doi:10.3390/d6040705
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