It is reared principally for beef; in the past it was used also as a draught beast and for milk.

[4] It was widespread and numerous; in the middle years of the nineteenth century it numbered about 65 000 head, and constituted some 50% of all cattle in Minho.

[5] The breed received formal recognition as the Galega in 1996;[3]: 245  a breed society, the Associação Portuguesa dos Criadores de Bovinos da Raça Minhota, was formed in that year, and a herd-book established in 1997.

[2] In 2016 it was distributed mainly in the former province of Entre-Douro-e-Minho, the modern districts of Viana do Castelo and Braga; its range extends into the districts of Porto and Vila Real, in the former provinces of Douro Litoral and Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro respectively.

[7] The Minhota is genetically close to the Ramo Grande of the Azores, and may have contributed to the development of the Arouquesa[8]: 289  and the Marinhoa of Portugal[3]: 239  and the Caracu of Brazil.