Huppa’s 100-year legacy shapes Icelandic cattle breeding

Farmers are marking 100 years since Huppa was born at Kluftir, as a celebration takes place in Flúðir, in Hrunamannahreppur. In a contributed article published by mbl.is, former MP and minister Guðni Ágústsson describes how the cow transformed breeding across Iceland and became the matriarch of the country’s Icelandic cattle breed.

Huppa was known for her milk production and as the mother of many bulls. She had 17 calves and lived to the age of 17. In 1936, she produced 5,390 litres of milk, a yield considered extraordinary at the time. Her reputation spread, and agricultural advisers visited Kluftir to see her and verify the figures.

Seven breeding bulls were selected from Huppa’s offspring and sent around the country, helping spur systematic cattle breeding. Ágústsson writes that farmers in Hrunamannahreppur became leaders in dairy farming, while the Kluftir line gained a reputation of its own. Agricultural advisers Páll Zóphóníasson and Hjalti Gestsson championed changes to Icelandic cattle breeding. At a 1947 agricultural exhibition, Gestsson said Iceland’s cattle could match the most intensively bred herds in Europe for milk production.

Ágústsson points to advances in breeding, barns, milking technology and haymaking. Huppa’s yield of about 5,400 litres is contrasted with the 16,779 litres recorded last year by Plóma at Gunnbjarnarholt, in Skeiða- og Gnúpverjahreppur. In all, 77 cows produced more than 13,000 kilograms annually. Hólmur, a farm in Austur-Landeyjar with 80 cows, had an average yield of 8,665 kilograms of milk per cow.

He says farmers’ education remains essential to further progress, alongside rebuilding and modernising livestock buildings and continuing careful breeding. Ágústsson concludes by congratulating all of Iceland’s cattle, which he describes as descendants of Huppa.