The idea of forming a national breed, Zebuine and by cross-breeding, was born from the imperfection of imported breeds and the desire to gather, in a single breed, the good qualities of each one. The first crossings could have been made out of mere curiosity.

Colonel José Caetano Borges played an important role in forming the breed, which he called Induberaba, and in other regions it was called Induaraxá, Indubahia, Induporã, etc. However, the Rural Society of the Triângulo Mineiro, meeting in 1938, to establish the breed standard, decided to adopt the name of Indubrasil for this cattle type.

There were some obstacles to identify Indubrasil as a breed. In fact, one cannot consider any crossbreed of the Zebu breed to be of the Indubrasil breed, although it has its features, but rather animals that, having their features, especially those that are registered, pass them on to their offspring. At first, Guzerá and Nelore competed in the formation of the breed and later Gir. Nelore’s contribution to the current herd is very small, with the merging of the characters of Guzerá and Gir being noted in Indubrasil, with a slight predominance of the attributes of this latter breed.

The Indubrasil breed have as a distinguishing feature its medium head, subconvex profile, long and pendulous ears. Its coat is white, gray, or red, always on dark, well-pigmented skin.

Average weight of 500 to 700 kg for females and 700 to 1,000 kg for bulls. Height from 135 to 150 cm for females and 145 to 155 cm for males.

Bay coat, from lighter to darker, with white tones; it can also be gray, burnt, or yellow. The hair is short, fine, silky, and shiny. Soft and unctuous hide. Black mucosa.

Strong head, almost straight profile, most commonly convex, intermediate between that of Guzerá and Gir. Its forehead is wide. Its face should be short and tapered towards the snout, which should be wide, with open nostrils. Its ears should be medium, but large ears are common, of variable shape, but often flat and facing forward, with lateral movements, as relaxed as those of Gir. Its eyes are large, tame, and slanted.

Its horns are of medium size, thick at the base and thin at the tips, with a shape that goes from that of Gir, which goes way backwards, to almost that of Guzera, which is lyre-shaped, but never vertical.

Short and thick neck in the bull, medium in the cow, preferring with little dewlap.

Long, compact, and bulky body, shaped as a parallelepiped. Small and firm hump, shaped like a cashew nut. Wide, straight, muscular, and leveled back. Long, wide rump, as horizontal as possible. Long tail, tapering to the tip. Developed chest, with a prominent brisket.

Small, slightly inclined shoulders, well covered, well connected to the neck and side. Broad, deep chest with belted, covered ribs, without depression. Belly line as straight as possible. Full flanks, very low and full knuckle. Very muscular and descended legs. Regular udder.

Strong, upright, short limbs, with good musculature above the foot. The bones of Indubrasil are a little too thick, which gives it a tendency to coarse limbs.

The breed stands out for several qualities, such as excellent weight gain, maternal ability, feed conversion, docility, rusticity, good carcass yield, excellent performance in feedlots and great heterosis at crossings.

It is worth mentioning that it is a breed of double aptitude and great heterosis at crossings (hybrid vigor of the crossers, when compared to synthetic breeds).