It is raised in the southern Italian regions of Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise and Puglia.

[5] It was formerly distributed throughout most of mainland Italy and as far as Istria,[6] now part of Croatia, and where it is now regarded as a separate breed, the Istrian or Boškarin.

[6] This hypothesis is based on the zoological theories of the nineteenth century, going back to the Bos taurus podolicus of Johann Andreas Wagner.

[6] The colour of the Podolica shows pronounced sexual dimorphism: cows are pale grey, tending to white, while males are darker and may be almost black.

The horns are light, lyre-shaped in cows, half-moon-shaped in bulls; they are slate-grey in young animals, becoming pale at the base and dark at the tip with maturity.

After the Second World War the progressive mechanisation of agriculture meant that demand for draught oxen disappeared.