Norwegian Red

The Norwegian Red or Norsk Rødt Fe^[4]: 509 is a Norwegian breed of dairy cattle. It was formed in 1961 through successive mergers of various traditional and regional breeds. In 2016 it accounted for approximately 85% of the cattle in the country, and about 99% of the national dairy herd.^[5]: 263

Norwegian Red

A cow
Conservation status	FAO (2007): not at risk[1]: 144
Other names	Norsk Rødt Fe Norsk Raudt Fe Norwegian Dairy Cattle Norwegian Red Cattle
Country of origin	Norway
Distribution	Norway Argentina Netherlands[2]
Use	dairy
Traits
Weight	Male: 1000 kg[3] Female: 575 kg[3]
Height	Male: 142 cm[3] Female: 130 cm[3]
Coat	red-and-white, black-and-white
Horn status	polled or horned
Cattle Bos primigenius

A horned cow

The coat may be black-and-white

A polled bull

The cattle may be either horned or naturally polled; despite the breed name, the coat may be either red-and-white or black-and-white.^[3]

History

The Norwegian Red is a modern composite breed. It was formed in 1961 by merging two existing Norwegian breeds, the Red Polled Eastland or Østlansk Rødkolle and the Norwegian Red-and-White or Norsk Rødt og Hvitt Fe. Each of these two was already a composite breed: the Red Polled Eastland was recorded from 1892 and later underwent cross-breeding with Swedish Red-and-White and Ayrshire, with some influence from the Dutch Black Pied;^[6]: 98 the Norwegian Red-and-White, established in 1939, also derived from cross-breeding of Swedish Red-and-White and Ayrshire, but had absorbed the Hedmark and Red Troender.^[6]: 88 The Red Troender, in turn, derived from cross-breeding in the nineteenth century of local Troender and Røros cattle with Ayrshire stock; it had later absorbed the Målselv (Målselvfe) breed of Tromsø and northern Norway.^[6]: 98 The Dølafe, originating from local cattle of south-east Norway, Telemark (Telemarksfe) and Ayrshire, was merged into the Norwegian Red in 1963.^[6]: 46 It was followed in 1968 by the South and West Norwegian or Sør og Vestlandsfe, which had been created in 1947 by fusion of the Vestland Fjord (Vestlandsk Fjordfe), the Vestland Red Polled (Vestlandsk Raudkolle) and the Lyngdal (Lyngdalsfe).^[6]: 108

The cattle have been exported to many countries, among them Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States and Madagascar, where exports began in the 1960s, and where by 2003 there were over 50000 head.^[5]: 263

Characteristics

The cattle may be either horned or naturally polled; despite the breed name, the coat may be either red-and-white or black-and-white.^[3] Average height at the withers is about 130 cm for cows and about 142 cm for bulls; average bodyweights are 575 kg and 1000 kg respectively.^[5]: 263

Use

The cattle are reared principally for milk. The average annual yield is 7125 kg per cow, with an average fat content of 4.24%.^[5]: 263

Norwegian Red used for dairy crossbreeding in Ireland

The Norwegian Red has been used to improve some characteristics of other dairy breeds such as the Friesian.^[7][8][9]