Great horned cattle (Bos taurus; Ukrainian: велика рогата худоба; velyka rohata khudoba). Species of domestic cow, Bos taurus, which originated most probably from the extinct wild aurochs and was domesticated a few thousand years ago. Great horned cattle are an important source of milk, meat, and leather and, previously, of fertilizer and draft power as well. They are particularly valued for high milk productivity (up to 8.2 kg of good-quality milk per day).

The main breeds of great horned cattle in Ukraine are the Simmental cattle, Red Steppe cattle, Lebedyn cattle, Spotted Black cattle, Gray Ukrainian cattle, White-headed Ukrainian cattle, Red Polish cattle, and Carpathian Brown cattle. Of these, the Simmental and Red Steppe breeds constituted 80 percent of the cattle on Ukrainian farms in the 1980s. The Simmental, a meat and dairy breed developed in Switzerland, was introduced in Ukraine in the second half of the 19th century. The crossing of Simmental bulls with Gray Ukrainian cows produced a Ukrainian subbreed of Simmentals. The Red Steppe cattle, one of the better dairy breeds, was developed in Ukraine in the first half of the 19th century by crossing various dairy breeds from Germany with local breeds, mainly the Gray Ukrainian cattle, followed by inbreeding and selection for milk yield and red coat. The Lebedyn, recognized as a specific breed in 1950, was developed in Sumy oblast by crossing local cows, mainly the Gray Ukrainian, with bulls of the Schwyz cattle (Swiss Brown) breed. It is bred in Sumy oblast, Kharkiv oblast, and Chernihiv oblast. The Spotted Black cattle, recognized as a separate dairy breed in 1959, was developed by crossing local cattle with Ostfriesian and some other derived Dutch breeds. The breed is raised mostly in Khmelnytskyi oblast, Zhytomyr oblast, Kyiv oblast, Poltava oblast, Volhynia oblast, Rivne oblast, and Lviv oblast. The Gray Ukrainian cattle, a meat and dairy breed distinguished by good health and endurance, is reared mainly in Poltava oblast and Dnipropetrovsk oblast. It is highly valued for developing and improving new breeds. The White-headed Ukrainian cattle, a dairy breed, was developed in the 19th century in Ukraine by crossing the Polisia breed with the Spotted Black Dutch breed. It is bred in Zhytomyr oblast, Khmelnytskyi oblast, and Kyiv oblast. The Red Polish cattle, a dairy breed developed at the end of the 19th century in Poland from central European red cattle, is raised mostly in Volhynia oblast, Ternopil oblast, Rivne oblast, and Lviv oblast. It is very similar to, but smaller than, the Red Steppe breed. The Carpathian Brown cattle, a meat and dairy breed, was developed in the Carpathian Mountains region in the first half of the 20th century. A mountain breed raised chiefly in the Carpathian oblasts, it is also used for improving local breeds of cattle in Armenia and the former Asian republics of the USSR. (See also Cattle raising.)

Christine Spolsky

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]