The cow of A Limia: the limiá cattle breed

The limiá cattle breed (limiá in Galician) comprises animals with a sub-concave to straight profile, hypermetric in the valleys and eumetric in the mountains, of medium-line proportions and large size ^[1]. It is a native breed of Galicia and its main output is meat ^[1]. The information reproduced by the website xinzodelimia.eu comes from the Dirección Xeral de Produción e Sanidade Agropecuaria of the Xunta’s Department of Agri-food Policy and refers to 2002 ^[1].

What it looks like

• Average live weight: 650 kg in females and 900 kg in adult males ^[1].
• Height at the withers: 140 cm in females and 148 cm in males ^[1].
• Coat: chestnut, darker on the front third, with black extremities and black pigmentation of the natural openings and eyelid edges; the tail switch is black and the muzzle is pale ("bociclara") ^[1].
• Horns: short hooked in bulls; large, long and spiral, with the tips pointing outwards, in cows, circular in section and pale with a dark tip ^[1].

Origin and registry

A native breed, with a herd book approved by the Order of 27 September 2000. The responsible body is the Consellería, with a collaborating organisation, the Association of Breeders of the Limiá Cattle Breed (LIMIAGA) ^[1]. The source cites the regulation under the title "Libro Genealóxico da Raza Bovina Frieiresa" (quoted), which indicates that the rule groups the limiá with the other frieiresa breeds of Galicia ^[1].

Population in 2002

• Total: 136 animals (herd-book data, 100 % reliability).
• Breeding stock: 66 females and 59 males used for breeding, 125 in all, in a total of 19 herds.
• Trend: growing; risk status "critical-maintained" ^[1].

AI (artificial insemination) is used and there are in situ and ex situ conservation programmes: 99,920 doses of semen from 34 males and 15 frozen embryos ^[1].

Population trend

According to the Galipedia, the breed went from 136 head in 2002 to 460 in 2007 and 861 in 2011, a trend of rapid growth ^[2]. The English Wikipedia gives a much lower figure for 1994, with 60 animals (46 breeding cows and 14 bulls), and for the end of 2023 cites 1,698 head: 1,410 females and 288 males, with 1,035 breeding cows and 52 active bulls ^[3]. The figures come from different registers and are not directly comparable year to year.

Qualities

It is adapted to high temperatures and produces high-quality meat. It is farmed under semi-extensive or extensive systems, with rotation of grazing areas; in semi-extensive farming it is normally housed at night and in extensive farming it is not housed ^[1].

Links

• Nature of A Limia
• The Limia river
• Potato of A Limia

Sources

1. «A vaca da Limia. A raza limiá», xinzodelimia.eu (captura de Wayback); datos de 2002 da Dirección Xeral de Produción e Sanidade Agropecuaria da Xunta de Galicia. http://www.xinzodelimia.eu/raza_%20limia.htm
2. «Limiá», Galipedia (Wikipedia en galego), CC BY-SA 4.0. https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limiá
3. «Limiana», Wikipedia en inglés, CC BY-SA 4.0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limiana