Foreign cattle on the way?

DIFFERENT breeds of cow could soon be seen in Jersey's fields for the first time in Island history.

If a draft bull semen importation law goes through the States next month, the door will be open to breeders to cross Jersey cows with UK beef cattle.

At the moment, the only cows allowed to be reared for meat on the Island are Jersey dairy cows, which are much smaller than beef cattle.

But orders for semen have already been placed in anticipation of the law being passed, which means that farmers would be able to inseminate Jersey cows with semen from bulls such as Aberdeen Angus, Belgian Blue and Charolais as early as this summer.

But Royal Jersey Agricultural & Horticultural Society chief executive James Godfrey said that imported semen for beef stock posed no threat to the pedigree of the dairy herds in Jersey.


A further demise of Jersey History?

I don't think so, as they are beef crosses, they cannot affect the purity of the jersey breed, they are grown for beef and cannot be bred from.
Guernsey have been doing this for years, as is visible around the islands fields, originally charolais were crossed with guernseys, and in these later years, we have had, herefords, aberdeen angus, and belgian blue semen imported to allow cross breeding.
I think i am correct in saying any bull calves born must be castrated to prevent accidental breeding, and no heifers are allowed to be bred.

its all a load of bull if you ask me, the days of staying loyal to the Jersey breed are over , the farming industry needs everything to keep it alive and if this help's great.

Is it, though? Jersey cattle, being a small, slim breed, don't have a great quantity of meat on them, but the quality is a different league to the mass-market breeds. I miss the days when it was widely available.

David Rotherham wrote:Is it, though? Jersey cattle, being a small, slim breed, don't have a great quantity of meat on them, but the quality is a different league to the mass-market breeds. I miss the days when it was widely available.

The trouble is the "Experts" tell us that Full cream milk, Butter,etc is wrong for you so what chance does the Jersey cow have, it technically has all the wrong things, so The farmers cannot sell and make profits from that perticular breed,

It will become the "Pet" of the Farmer I am afraid and not a profit making item