As of yesterday, the Chianina breed is a little lonelier. What is rightly considered the most beautiful bovine in the world, one of the feathers in the cap of Italian agriculture and breeding, the oldest and matchless Umbrian and Tuscan excellence, will no longer have Lucio Migni, the still-young expert who was considered the greatest Chianina expert in the world, to watch over its purity and undisputed beauty.
Lucio Migni, from Ospedalicchio di Bastia Umbra, came from a family that has devoted itself to the breeding of the Chianina for almost a century. In him that heritage, so unique and old, had become passion, absolute love. At just the age of twenty-six, having become a breed expert, he had started to work briskly to give scientific rigor and to better structure the technical knowledge of the Italian beef breeds, especially of “his” Chianina. Concentrating mainly on the genetic improvement of the breed, for the purpose of its protection and safeguard, he had become one of the chief advocates of performance testing on bulls, tests which today are the basis for the entire zootechnical selection made in Italy on autochthonous beef cattle. After the transfer to Perugia (San Martino in Colle) of the National Association of Italian Beef Cattle Breeders, for which he had always worked, he had become the head of the National Genetic Centre of the Chianina, Marchigiana, and Romagnola breed. His abilities and the unique sensitivity with which he was endowed had soon led him to be considered the point of reference for all scholars and experts of this breed and, in spite of his young age he was the most beloved, respected, and acknowledged specialist in the world. He was called upon to judge the Italian beef cattle in all the countries where our breeds are appreciated. Because of his professionalism he travelled and was a judge in England, Germany, Holland, France, and Scandinavia. He won an award as the best judge of cattle breeds from the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture. Very well known in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, and even in Australia, he had carried high the Italian and Umbrian flags in all those countries, not only judging the most important cattle shows, but also holding courses and conferences, often in universities. He had also recently organized with great success the 4th World Congress of Italian Beef Cattle Breeds in Gubbio.
His joie de vivre, together with a proverbial meekness, place him among those persons who have done so much for their territory, for their agriculture, always acting on tiptoe, with that touch of elegance similar to the lightness and elegance, combined with strength, of the Chianina.
Thus, at just 42 years of age, we have lost not only a personality of the economic and technical-scientific world, but also a friend loved by all, rich with humanity, sensitivity, and healthy passion. The breeders will long mourn the man who was considered the best and most promising expert of our Chianina, which is now, as we said, lonelier.
Guido Perosino