[4] Following the construction of the Pustertal railway in the 1860s, hundreds of head were bought and loaded at Bruneck for transport north of the Alps, particularly to the area of Vienna, where the Pustertaler came to be known as the Wiener Kuh, or Viennese cow.

[5] The First World War and the cession of South Tyrol to Italy under the Treaty of Saint-Germain of 1919 led to a decline in numbers also,[5] and the herd-book was not maintained after 1920.

[citation needed] An attempt to revive the fortunes of the breed was made between 1954 and 1967; approximately 300 cows and 500 calves were registered during this period.

[4] A genetic study carried out in 2001 showed that the local breed known in the provinces of Turin and Cuneo as the Barà (dialect for barrato, "barred") was closely similar to the Pustertaler.

[2] The cattle are finched and colour-sided: they are basically white with chestnut-brown to light brown or black plaques on the flanks that dissolve into small spots at the margins.