I met this lady last year while walking through the countryside of Ragusa province with Sicilia in Cammino. Dark red Modican cows may be seen throughout the countryside of southeastern Sicily and beyond. They are primarily bred for milk production in order to make Sicilian Ragusano and caciocavallo cheeses. Modican cows graze freely at pasture and have sturdy legs and feet to manage the arid, rocky terrain of Ragusa, Agrigento, and Palermo provinces. Because they don’t produce a lot of meat and only lactate when they are calving, few producers cultivate this rare breed. According to Slow Food, there are fewer than 2,000 Modican cows in Sicily.
