Eared Cattle Earn Swiss Bells

Zebu cattle tread lightly on highly erodible Swiss pastures.

by Martha Mintz

Alpine pastures, a clanging chorus of bells, and Bos indicus cattle with their floppy ears, humps, and doe eyes—exactly what you'd expect to find when visiting a Swiss farm. Wait, what?

Though not common just yet, Trimbach, Switzerland, breeder and farmer Rebekka Strub sees strong potential for zebu (Bos indicus) breeds in her country. For one, they handle the heat and sun better than Bos taurus (taurine) breeds, she says.

"They're out grazing and playing in the hot sun of our Alpine pastures in the heat of the day when our Aubrac cattle are resting in the shade," Strub says.

Zebu breeds have fewer problems with their feet and other cattle illnesses common to the region, she says. Lameness can severely impact a cow's ability to graze the mountainous terrain Swiss cattle frequent.

A Swiss study found zebu cattle showed significant resistance to colonization by three key bacterial pathogens associated with hoof diseases like bovine digital dermatitis. Two of the pathogens detected in taurine cattle tested were completely absent in zebus. The study reports this as the first evidence zebu cattle show resistance to bacterial hoof pathogens.

Eating habits, however, are what first brought zebus to Strub's mountain-top farm.

"They eat like goats but without the parasite issues," she says.

Hof Horn (The Horn Farm) is a 45-hectare (111 acres) organic operation. It's perched on steep hillsides that climb from the Aare river, briskly gaining 1,300 feet of elevation. Thorny brush, trees, and weeds encroach from the forest edges at every opportunity.

"This is very steep terrain. If I let the pastures grow over with trees and brush, I'd never be able to cut it all down myself," Strub says. Most of the land is only accessible on foot.

Boehr goats have helped keep weeds and brush at bay in her pastures and orchards in the past, and she maintains a small herd today. It's difficult however to create small pastures to contain goats on the terrain.

Goats are also plagued by parasites. Strub and her customers value a biodiverse landscape. To protect biodiversity, she aims to limit parasite treatments that might impact off-target insects.

Limiting animal impact is also a priority. Goats tread lightly on the terracettes and trails that traverse the slopes. Heavy hoof traffic can quickly turn the paths to bare dirt and mud.

Dwarf zebus have proven to be a successful fit to utilize the landscape while protecting productivity and preventing erosion. They're not tiny, but certainly smaller than a standard taurine or zebu animal. Cows top out at around 800 pounds. Slaughtered grass-fed animals produce 200 to 290-pound carcasses.

"The trails in our pastures now are always covered with grass. When my dad raised larger taurine breeds, those paths were bare of vegetation," Strub says. Besides weeds and brush, zebus also favor older, mature forage.

"August was nice and green this year with all the rain, but normally at this time our pastures are all brown. We needed a breed that could handle the dry grass," she says.

Above. Rebekka Strub uses dwarf zebu cattle to graze her steep Alpine pastures. Half the weight of a taurine breed, zebus tread lightly on the delicate landscape. They browse brush, weeds, and mature forage through hot summer days in high altitude pastures. Zebus were found only in the zoo in Switzerland before the Strubs imported them.

Warming up. Strub's parents, Katharina and Paul, imported zebus from Germany where they were used to maintain orchards. At the time, zebus in Switzerland were only found in the zoo.

They imported another small breed, Aubracs, from France as well. The beef cattle were problematic initially for traditional communal summer grazing programs. The Swiss government pays producers to take their herds high into the mountains to graze and maintain the land.

There was pushback when the Strubs wanted to take their beef cattle. Traditionally, summer grazing was for dairy cows, not beef cattle with calves. The Strubs eased into summer grazing with their Aubracs.

"First we had to change their minds about mother cows, then about zebus," she says. There were misconceptions that zebus were too small, wild, and aggressive. They were eventually allowed when there weren't enough cows to manage the land.

"Once they saw the zebus eating the weeds and how well they cleaned up the land, they wanted us to bring zebus every time," Strub says.

Today, Strub views them as an ideal breed for steep pastures and hopes others soon will, too. The passionate breeder is working to develop top genetics in her herd.

"I think we could help solve some of the problems with heat, parasites, and diseases we see here by crossing other breeds with zebus," Strub says. ‡