Rare Shorthorns
If this scene speaks to you, prints and downloads are available:
If this scene speaks to you, prints and downloads are available:
If this scene speaks to you, prints and downloads are available:
The Rare Shorthorns of Nagano’s Highlands
日本の肉牛のわずか１％・長野県の高原で育つ日本短角牛
Driving along Nagano Prefectural Route 40, I pulled into a small parking lot beside the vast Tateshina Cattle Ranch. The lot mainly serves visitors to Gyunyu Senka Moumou, a local dairy products shop.
Inside, the store offers soft-serve ice cream, ice cream floats, fresh cold milk, and pastries rich with butter and cheese made from the milk of nearby dairy farms. Benches outside invite visitors to enjoy their treats while watching cattle graze across the highland pastures.
At first glance, one might assume these are dairy cows, but the ranch actually keeps its Holstein, Jersey, and Swiss Brown dairy herds at another site. The cattle visible here are beef breeds, including the rare Japanese Shorthorn.
These reddish-brown cows roam the grassy plateau extending from Mt. Tateshina, with the city of Saku faintly visible about 20 km (12 mi) to the northeast through the summer haze.
The Shorthorn is an uncommon native breed, accounting for less than one percent of Japan’s beef cattle. Unlike the famously marbled Japanese Black, Shorthorns produce leaner, red meat thanks to their mountain-grass diet rather than corn or alfalfa feed. Hardy and cold-resistant, they thrive in open pastures during spring and summer and spend winters sheltered in barns.
However, since Japan liberalized beef imports in 1991, raising Shorthorns has sharply declined, as domestic farmers struggle to compete with cheap, industrial-scale beef feedlots from abroad.
For me, though, this place is not about the economics of cattle raising or the prestige of fine meats. I’m not a connoisseur, nor do I often dine out. What matters to me is the simple beauty of the scene: a cow grazing quietly on a lush mountain pasture, cool breezes carrying the scent of summer grass, and the wide open views of Nagano’s highlands. That, in itself, is a feast.
Location: Tateshina, Nagano, Japan
Timestamp: 2025-07-30 11:14~11:22
Pentax K-1 II + DFA 28-105mm F3.5-5.6 + CP
① 105 mm ISO 400 for 1/250 sec. at ƒ/11
② 68 mm ISO 200 for 1/200 sec. at ƒ/8
③ 105 mm ISO 200 for 1/250 sec. at ƒ/6.3
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