[4]: 246 Various sub-types were identified within the breed, among them that of Bragança, the Beirao of Beira, the Mirandes Extremenho or Ratinho Serrano, and the Jarmelo.

[4]: 246 [2] Numbers in the 1960s and 1970s were some 150000–200000 head, and the breed was distributed throughout most of Portugal, with the exception only of the former province of Minho in the north-west (now consisting of the districts of Braga and Viana do Castelo) and the Algarve region in the south.

[3]: 20 [4]: 246  In the later twentieth century the combined effects of the arrival in Portugal of more productive imported cattle and the mechanisation of agriculture, with its consequent reduction in demand for draught oxen, brought about a rapid fall in numbers; by the early 1990s the remaining stock was again mostly in the Terra de Miranda.

[2] The larger Marinhoa cattle of the district of Aveiro derive principally from the Mirandesa, possibly with some intromission from Minhota stock.

It was the principal cattle breed of Portugal and was distributed in large numbers throughout most of the country[3]: 20 [4]: 246 It is now reared for beef; the meat may be marketed as Denominação de Origem Controlada ('Protected Designation of Origin').