In 1860, the segregation of the different breeds begins in the Canton du Valais. 1835 to 1859 was the period of the first decree concerning type trait scoring of bulls for breeding voted by the Parliament of the Republic. Up to that time, the breed notion was still not precise and the Hérens animals were considered as cattles belonging to small mountain breeds.

In the year 1859 the Evolène Breed appears for the first time on a contest list and was named Hérens Breed. It's only on 1885 that the definitive and standard description in terms of colour was written down in the Canton du Valais legislation. The breed typical colour versions were described as follows: self-coloured coat, light chestnut brown, black or red with blond stripes on the spine.

At the time, this choice was dictated by the need to assert the identity of the Hérens Breed over other races in Switzerland, after a period of uncertainty and livestock breeding crossing. Therefore, the panachure, which was one of the variants of the colored race, was eliminate. However, as the story of a race does not stop and at the request of interested farmers, in 2002, the Federation has reintroduced the panachure in the breed standard.

Evolène Breed

In 1867, Wilkens, austrian zooexpert has described precisely the original color of the Hérens Breed. He spent time in the village of Evolène and he visited an Alpage where 66 cows and 40 heifers were kept during summer time. It says in particular …The tail head, the perineum and the tuft are normally white, the belly and the inside of the legs are of a lighter colour except of the white spots on the rear part of the animals. We can sometimes also find white spots on the forehead, but there are never white spots on the chest, on the back and on the side.

In 1934, A. Luisier, genealogist of the breed, said: The old Hérens type was often animals with a white strap under the belly. In many cases, this strap went from the chest up to the tail head.

As a matter of principle, the Breeder’s Association considers today the appearance of colour mixture as one of the coloured versions of the original population and permits the registration of such animals in the Herdbook of the breed.

In 1999, a descriptive survey performed by the service of the Herdbook identified several types of panachure from a sample of 73 animals, the type Pinzgauer or Quadzé, the type White Foot and the type Irregular Panachure.