The right cow, in the right place: lessons from Uruguay for the Montado

The right cow, in the right place: lessons from Uruguay for the Montado.

When I recently visited Villa Lucero, The Land Group's 9,000-hectare farm in central Uruguay, I expected to find a familiar landscape. But while inspecting the paddocks with my colleague Juan Pedro Scremini, I noticed something different from what I was used to observing through my work in Portugal. Villa Lucero's cattle herd was composed of much smaller animals, each weighing around 400 kilograms, that thrived on native pasture without any external feed.

In the Alentejo region of Portugal, particularly in the Montado, most herds consist of large-framed animals weighing 600 to 700 kilograms. These animals look impressive, but very often maintained by very high supplementation costs, in the harsh conditions that define the region.

This contrast made me question why farmers in Portugal continue to manage much larger animals, in an environment that is substantially more constrained than Uruguay's?

Johann Zietsman, in Man, Cattle and Veld, argues that the ideal cow does not need constant intervention. It must be resilient, efficient, and suited to local conditions, able to thrive within them rather than despite them. Over time, each farmer develops its own type of cattle through selective breeding. But the traits selected and reaching that ideal requires clear priorities and deliberate selection decisions.

Farmers in Uruguay show what consistent and functional selection can achieve. Most herds include British breeds such as Angus, Hereford, or their crosses. These cattle perform well on natural pasture, maintain high fertility and feed efficiency, and tolerate parasites and seasonal stress. Uruguayan producers prioritise traits that improve system performance. They choose animals that function under local constraints rather than compensate for poor fit with external inputs.

In Portugal, breeding often reflects tradition or appearance. Many well-meaning farmers manage herds without clear selection goals or simply visual appealing traits. Their animals struggle to adapt and farmers face high feed costs.

As we develop our business plan in Portugal, we will focus on building a resilient breeding herd based on pure-bred Mertolenga cows.
The Mertolenga cow is a native breed that is well-suited to the Montado: It performs well on low-quality forage, requires less feed, and offers strong fertility and maternal traits. But to improve commercial results, we will cross these cows with Angus bulls to combine local adaptation with growth potential and carcass quality.

Together, we cultivate sustainable growth 🌱


Written by Gonçalo Pereira Miguel
Agronomist, The Land Group