Danish Red

Danish Red
Conservation status
  • FAO (2007): not listed: 36 
  • DAD-IS (2026): not at risk
Other names
  • Fünen: 54 
  • Fynsk: 54 
  • Red Dane
  • Red Danish
  • Red Danish Dairy
  • Rød Dansk Malkerace
  • Rød Dansk Malkekvæg: 54 
Country of originDenmark
  • Cattle
  • Bos (primigenius) taurus

The Danish Red or Rød Dansk Malkerace is a Danish breed of dairy cattle. It derives from the traditional local cattle breeds of the islands of Fyn (Funen) and Sjælland (Zealand), with influence from red cattle from elsewhere in Europe. It falls within a group of red Central European breeds, many of which now form part of the modern European Red Dairy Breed group.: 175 

There are two distinct and separate types: the modern Rød Dansk Malkerace, which since about 1975 has been heavily influenced by cross-breeding with imported American Brown Swiss and other breeds; and the traditional type, the Rød Dansk Malkerace anno 1970 or RDM-1970.

History

The first recorded use of the name 'Rød Dansk Malkekvæg' was in 1878, at a farmers' assembly in Svendborg; a herd-book was started in 1885.: 54 : 294  A breed society, the Landsforeningen for Rød Dansk Malkerace, was formed in Skejby in Aarhus in 1967, and became inactive in 2002.: 160 

The breed was developed in Denmark based on local breeds bred with Angeln cattle from Angeln, Schleswig. Danish Red cattle (and, earlier, Angeln cattle) have been imported to many other countries and have been used to improve and form many local breeds, such as Lithuanian Red, Estonian Red, Latvian Red, Polish Red, Belarus Red, Tambov Red (Russian Red), Bulgarian Red, etc.

Between 1934 and about 1960 the cattle were reared in the United States, where they known as 'Red Dane'; from about 1948 to 1968 they were also bred – as the 'Dinemarquês' – in Brazil.: 294  Some were exported in the 1960s and 1970s to India and to Thailand, where experimental crosses were made with zebuine breeds such as the Hallikar, Red Sindhi and Sahiwal. They are good milk cows, yielding milk with higher butter fat and protein content than the Holstein Friesian does.

References

  1. ↑ Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
  2. ↑ Breed Data Sheet: Rod Dansk Malkerace / Denmark (Cattle). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed October 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Valerie Porter, Ian Lauder Mason (2020). Mason's World Dictionary of Livestock Breeds, Types and Varieties (sixth edition). Wallingford; Boston: CABI. ISBN 9781789241532.
  4. ↑ I. Tapio, S. Värv, J. Bennewitz, J. Maleviciute, E. Fimland, Z. Grislis, T. H. E. Meuwissen, I. Miceikiene, I. Olsaker, H. Viinalass, J. Vilkki, J. Kantanen (2006). Prioritization for Conservation of Northern European Cattle Breeds Based on Analysis of Microsatellite Data. Conservation Biology. 20 (6): 1768–1779. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00488.x.
  5. 1 2 Similar breeds in cattle: Red group - Central European Red. Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, School of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. Archived 18 May 2009.
  6. ↑ Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9781780647944.
  7. ↑ Breed Data Sheet: Rød Dansk Malkerace anno 1970 (RDM-1970) / Denmark (Cattle). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed October 2026.
  8. ↑ Danish Cattle Breeds. North European Cattle Diversity. Kaunas: Lietuvos Veterinarijos Akademija. Archived 18 June 2007.
  9. ↑ Rød Dansk Malkerace, anno 1970 (RDM-1970) (in Danish). Ølgod: Danske Husdyr. Archived 14 June 2026.
  10. 1 2 Marleen Felius (2025). Cattle Breeds: An Encyclopedia. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004449015.
  11. ↑ Detlef L. Simon, Doris Buchenauer (1993). Results of Monitoring animal genetic resources by the EAAP Working Group on Animal Genetic Resources, e-book 2025. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004684546.
  12. ↑ Landsforeningen for Rød Dansk Malkerace Skejby (in Danish). Det Centrale Virksomhedsregister. København: Erhvervsstyrelsen. Accessed October 2026.
  13. ↑ Ove Madsen (1977). Red Danish cattle in the tropics. In: Animal Breeding: Selected Articles from the World Animal Review. FAO Animal Production and Health Paper No. 1. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9251002886.