# Cattle in Somalia: Boran and the Somali breeds

> Cattle in Somalia: numbers, where they are kept, the Boran breed and the Somali Boran, the large red cattle traded to Kenya, cattle exports and milk.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/economy/boran-and-somali-cattle/
Last checked: 2026-11-13
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## How many cattle?

An FAO study estimates Somalia had **3.93 million cattle** before the 2016/17 drought, against 6.61 million camels and over 42 million sheep and goats. Cattle and their milk were worth about USD 0.48 billion a year, three-quarters of it from milk ([FAO Statistics Working Paper 23-37, 2023](https://doi.org/10.4060/cc8138en)). Cattle are the least drought-hardy of the four species: they die first when the rains fail (same source).

Somalia exported **291,692 cattle** in 2024 ([Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025](https://centralbank.gov.so/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Annual-Report_2025.pdf)). Cattle also walk across the land border to Kenya, and less than 30 percent of them are formally taxed at the border ([Ng'asike and others, Pastoralism, 2020](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13570-020-00185-y)). See [The cattle trade to Kenya](/en/economy/cattle-trade-with-kenya/).

## The Boran

The **Boran** is a zebu beef breed whose origin is given as Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. It descends from the shorthorned zebu of the Borana people of southern Ethiopia ([Wikipedia, Boran cattle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boran_cattle)).

- **Weight:** bulls 650 to 850 kg, cows 350 to 500 kg.
- **Colours:** white, fawn, red, black or spotted.
- **Traits:** fertile, early to mature, hardy and calm, and adapted to local conditions over more than a thousand years in Africa. It has little resistance to the tsetse-borne disease trypanosomiasis.
- **Ancestry:** a DNA study found it 64 percent Bos indicus (Indian humped cattle), 24 percent European Bos taurus and 12 percent African Bos taurus.

All from [Wikipedia, Boran cattle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boran_cattle).

## The Somali Boran and the Kenyan Boran

Three types are named: the small **Orma Boran**, the **Somali Boran**, and the **Kenyan (improved) Boran**, which was developed from the Orma Boran, the Borana and the Somali Boran. The Boran Cattle Breeders' Society has managed breeding in Kenya since 1951 ([Wikipedia, Boran cattle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boran_cattle)).

## Cattle from Somalia in Kenya's markets

At Garissa market in Kenya, an estimated **60 to 70 percent** of cattle come from Somalia. They are described as large brown-red cattle that resist drought, weigh 280 to 350 kg live at grade II, and fetch higher prices than the smaller Boran kept by Kenyan herders ([Ng'asike and others, Pastoralism, 2020](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13570-020-00185-y)).

## Related pages

- [Rinderpest in Somalia](/en/economy/rinderpest-in-somalia/), the cattle plague eradicated by 2010
- [How many livestock does Somalia have?](/en/economy/livestock-numbers-in-somalia/)

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