Piedmontese

Our Piedmontese are part of the Leachman Montana Range™ venture. Montana Range™ is a unique beef product that has the following characteristics:

• As lean as skinless chicken
• More tender than Angus beef
• Higher yielding than any other carcass breed
• Carcass gene verifiable by convenient DNA test
• Over 75% of the calves hit the carcass target
• Hormone free and antibiotic free
• Exclusive USDA certificate for Certified Piedmontese \Beef

Research has shown that the Myostatin allele (an existing natural gene found in many beef breeds) produces beef that is leaner, more tender, and higher yielding. The Piedmontese breed is homozygous for the Myostatin gene. It maintains moderate birth weights and acceptable calving ease when used in crossbreeding.

History Piedmontese - Origins of the Breed - Italy

The Piedmontese region of northwest Italy (razza Piemontese) is a secluded pocket, naturally protected by the Alps mountains. Aurochs, (bos Taurus) ancient European cattle, populated this region. Some 25,000 years ago, a type of cattle known as Zebu (bos Indicus) began a massive migration from Pakistan. The vanguard of this migration entered the Piedmont valleys and were compelled to stop. These two distinct breeds - the Auroch and the Zebu - fused and evolved over 25,000 years of natural selection to become the Piedmontese breed.

The Piedmontese bovine breed owes its name to the region of its origin. Piemonte (Italy), and is the most important and finest Italian beef breed. The males are grey or pale fawn in color, the dams white or pale fawn while the calves are a deep fawn color. The character that has determined the recent evolution of the breed is the development of the so-called "double-muscle" factor, i.e. extremely developed muscular masses not only in the thigh or the buttocks but also in the neck. The skin and the bones of the Piedmontese bovines are particularly fine and the nearly complete absence of subcutaneous fat makes it possible to observe quite clearly the muscular furrows. At birth a male calf weighs on average 92.5 - 94.7 lbs, a female 88 lbs; an adult bull can reach the weight of 2423 - 2643 lbs a cow about 1322 lbs.

The Piedmontese is an early maturing and long living breed with a great adaptability to many different conditions and therefore it can be bred in all types of climates. The feeding of the Piedmontese cow is extremely simple: it consists preferably of green or dry fodder (silage), integrated with a feedstuff consisting mainly of cereals or leguminosae. Thanks to its excellent feed conversion capacity it can be bred not only on plane or hilly grazing fields but even on the poorest mountain pastures.

The Piedmontese produces carcasses of considerable value which, thanks to the meat potential and the low fat rates, rank in the highest categories of the EUROP-classification. The dressing out percentage of the Piedmontese veal is one of the highest in the world, reaching - and often exceeding 70% of the live weight. Furthermore the carcasses yield a considerable quantity of first quality cuts; the meat is lean, tender and tasty, with an extremely low cholesterol level (48.5 mg per 100 g of meat).

Thanks to all these characteristics the rearing of the Piedmontese bovine breed has spread out widely all over the world: USA, Canada, China, Poland, Argentina, Brazil, etc., to name just a few. Livestock, embryos and semen are continuously exported to these and to other countries.

In 1886, the appearance of double-muscling (DM) in Piedmontese cattle attracted the attention of breeders, who had the foresight to recognize the enormous potential of this development. The first Italian Herdbook was opened in 1887, and improvement campaign and standard of merit have led to many years of genetic selection to eliminate detrimental aspects generally associated with DM.

We've taken the herd north!