Pecora Brianzola

The Brianza is lake country running up to the Prealps with no great sweep of pasture, so its sheep grazed the margins, steep and often terraced ground, and in doing so held back the broadleaf wood that would otherwise have closed over it. The Brianzola is one of the big alpine meat breeds: tall, rams to 100 kilos and ewes to 80, convex profile, hornless in both sexes, thin drooping ears, an unspotted white fleece of medium-fine wool that shortens to a bright coat on the head, throat, belly and legs. It was simply the razza locale or nostrana until the 1930s, when the name Brianzola first appears in the Como provincial agricultural bulletins.