Brown Swiss

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Brown Swiss is the breed of dairy cattle that produces the second largest quantity of milk per annum. The milk contains on average 4% butterfat and 3.5% protein, making their milk excellent for production of cheese. The Brown Swiss is known for a long gestation period, immense size, large furry ears, and an extremely docile (though some would say lethargic) temperament. Regardless, the Brown Swiss is quite a resilient breed of cattle; they are hardy and capable of subsisting with little care or feed. The Brown Swiss originated on the slopes of the Alps in Switzerland; because they were bred in this harsh climate, they are resistant to the heat, cold and many other common cattle problems.

The conventional breed known as Brown Swiss is actually quite different from the original Schwyzer Braunvieh cattle cultivated in northern Italy and southern Germany around the end of the 17th and 18th centuries. When imported to America in the early 1800s many dairymen complained that the Brown Swiss appeared to be nothing more than another variety of Jersey cattle, and the strain was subsequently bred for size to differentiate them more clearly. ^[1]