# Where Have all the Guernseys Gone?



## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

Here is an interesting article for the dairy farmer types in our membership. I had no idea that a cow could survive under such harsh and cold conditions. 



Where Have all the Guernseys Gone? 

Where Have all the Guernseys Gone?
Article by Gary Martin
Photos by Lynn Stone 



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At the peak of home-delivery milk sales in 1966, scrambling milkmen ran through neighborhoods in the dark early morning hours before breakfast, leaving a total of 280 million quarts of Golden Guernsey® milk on the doorsteps of American homes. It was a time of pride for Guernsey dairy farmers, whose gentle orange and white cows produced a naturally colored gold milk of high nutritional value. 

But today that gold has all but disappeared from the milk supply.



Hardly more than 50 years ago there were 114,000 Guernsey cows registered with the American Guernsey Association. Today there are only about 15,000 registered Guernseys in the U.S. and an estimated equal number of heifers. In Canada, registered Guernseys number only in the hundreds. 

The famous Golden Guernsey trademark has been relegated to t-shirts and souvenirs, while the once proud herds that added quiet beauty to rural roadways are now a rare sight.

The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy has placed Guernseys on their “watch” status, which means there are numerical concerns for the breed. It is the level that comes just before “rare.”

Where have all the Guernseys gone? Those who have worked closest to these cows say they have been the unintended victims of a market that in the past 40 years has rewarded milk volume instead of milk components such as proteins and butterfat, both areas in which the Guernsey excels. Stated plainly, Guernsey cows could not keep up with Holsteins in milk volume, and dairy farmers went with the higher producers.

While Holstein herd averages through the years steadily moved up over 20,000 pounds milk a year, with some herds topping 30,000 pounds, Guernsey milk production remained well below 20,000 pounds, and the market had little regard for high milk solids in which the Guernsey holds a distinct advantage. Attempts to increase Guernsey milk production through cross-breeding with Holsteins, especially Red Holsteins, have so far had little impact. 

But the sun may be rising once again for Guernseys. Seth Johnson, Executive Secretary of the American Guernsey Association, says between 5,000 and 6,000 new Guernseys have been registered in each of the last three years. He estimates there are now a total of about 30,000 Guernseys in the U.S., including registered cows and heifers.

1931 Promotion 

One quart of Guernsey milk supplies proteins equal to: 

7 ounces of sirloin steak 
6 ounces of round steak 
4.3 eggs 
8.6 ounces of fowl 

Energy equal to:
11 ounces of sirloin steak
12 ounces of round steak 
8.5 eggs 
10.7 ounces of fowl



“Component pricing has certainly helped the Guernsey breed,” Johnson said. “Our breeders are benefiting from higher milk prices than their neighbors milking other breeds. I feel the move to component pricing has allowed our numbers to remain stable recently as the entire industry has continued to downsize, and there are fewer and fewer dairymen overall."

“Our members are striving to breed a cow that is moderate in size and produces high components milk. We want a cow that can last a long time and produce high value milk. We continue to try to promote the Golden Guernsey logo as a way to add value to Guernsey milk. At one time Golden Guernsey commanded a premium in the marketplace, and we see a trend toward branded, traceable products with a history having real value in the future.


“The most relevant trait that Guernseys lend to today’s market is extreme components,” Johnson said. “Only Jerseys come close (to Guernseys) for fat percentage, and Guernseys rank among the top breeds for protein percent. This makes them an excellent choice for dairymen selling to a cheese market. It also makes them a very viable option in a crossbreeding program. The result of crossing Guernseys on Holsteins is a medium-sized black and white animal that tests much higher than a Holstein and is superior for calving ease.

“I feel the breed is moving in the right direction,” Johnson said. “After decades in which the main focus was stature and the show ring, we are concentrating on breeding a cow that is what the Guernsey was meant to be, a moderate sized cow that excels in quality of milk.

“We are using young sires that reflect a new emphasis on high components and, more importantly, deeper cow families,” Johnson added.

The best Guernsey herds in the country today, as reported by the American Guernsey Association, average around 23,000 pounds milk. The official breed average in 2004 for all herds was 15,925 pounds milk, with 4.5 percent fat, and 3.3 percent protein, actual production, not ME (Mature Equivalent).

The world record milk production for a Guernsey is held by Breezy Point P Racer, an Excellent-93 cow from Wisconsin that made 46,154 pounds milk in 365 days as a six-year-old in 2000. She had 4.7 percent fat and 3.1 percent protein

A Light History of the Guernsey Breed 

Guernsey cattle take their name from the second largest of the British Channel Islands just off the coast of France, where they were developed. The first Guernseys of record in America, imported in 1830, went to a farm in Massachusetts. The American Guernsey Cattle Club was formed in 1877 to keep breed records. It became the American Guernsey Association in 1987. 

Guernsey Ancestors 

"...First we have the Normandy, or Alderney cattle. The Normandy cattle are imported from the French continent, and are larger and have a superior tendency to fatten; and others are from the islands on the French coast; but all of them, whether from the continent or the islands, pass under the common name of Alderneys..." 
Cattle, Their Breed, Management, and Diseases, 1834 

"I have found it...generally admitted that there is but very little distinction between the Alderney cow and the best specimens of the Jersey and Guernsey." 
The Priviledged Islands, 1840 

"One is prompted, by study and comparisons, to say that the most prominent ancestor of the Guernsey cow is the breed, not yet extinct, called the Froment du Leon, in Brittany, France. 

"Though the Froment du Leon animal be small, it give good flow of milk proportionate to the bulk of the beast. In full milk it produces up to 30 pounds daily of rich, yellow milk, from which butter of the finest quality is made. 

"The second source from which the Guernsey has been formed was the introduction of Norman blood of the brindle variety of cattle, which is yet to be found in the rich butter district of Tsingy, renowned as producing the best French butter. 

"Now the crossing of the two breeds, the small Froment du Leon and the bulky Norman brindle, has given the medium-size cow of Guernsey, in which there seems to be more blood of the first than of the other..."
B.J. Anamias. professor of Agriculture. Les Vauxbelets Agriculture College, Isle of Guernsey, 1917 

Premium Price for Guernsey Milk in 1885 

"From a small beginning, it is now my privilege to supply to a large number of families many hundreds of quarts of milk daily, the product of twenty-five herds of Guernsey cows, embracing nearly all the choice herds of those breeds in the vicinity of Philadelphia. 

"For this milk an advanced (higher) price is regularly obtained, and that not from the rich only. My customers are, to a considerable extent, among those who are obliged to study economy in their expenditures. I now have about as great demand for the Guernsey milk as for the commoner article, though at an advance of two cents per quart, and am satisfied the demand will continue to grow as buyers come more fully to appreciate its merit." 
George Abbott, a prominent Philadelphia Quaker and owner of Abbott's Dairy, in 1885 

Guernseys Survive the Antarctic 

Three Guernsey cows accompanied Admiral Byrd on his famous expedition to the Antarctic in 1933. The cows traveled 22,000 miles on the open seas, first enduring tremendous heat near the equator, then spending a full year on the ice barrier, all the while supplying fresh milk to members of the expedition. 

Put ashore at the Antarctic's Bay of Whales, the cows and a bull calf born at sea and named Iceberg, had to walk almost three miles across the ice before they were housed in a tent until a barn could be built for them. 

The Guernseys were kept at the Advanced Base of the expedition, and snow had to be melted to supply the cows, a difficult task in the Antarctic. The body heat of the cows at rest would melt the snow, sinking the cows so deeply into it they would have to be helped to their feet. 

All three cows and the young bull survived the expedition and returned safely to the U.S. where they were heralded as heroes in their own right. 

Information on this page was quoted or adapted from the book, "The Guernsey Breed," Hillsboro Press, and is available from the American Guernsey Association.


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## Chris (Sep 15, 2003)

I know the Louisiana local diary market has suffered greatly over the last few decades. Akin to oil production companies who have merged to combine efforts and investment/capital capabilities, I believe the larger milk producers have also continued to run the small dairy operators and farms out of business. I am certain that this is probably a national trend, but in Louisiana we have had a great deal of oil-related business failures starting the early 80s and dairy was probably before that. I bought my 8N from a man who bought it locally down the road in Pineville, LA and it worked its entire life on that farm --- it was covered since Day 1 and the fabulous condition of the sheetmetal and lack of normal rust and elements was quite apparent. That tractor had never been trailed as it was driven home from the dealership in the early 50s. That dairy farmer in his early 90s explained to me then about the condition of his business and how things had fallen out due to costs of production and lack of profitability. 

Truly some sad stories.


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## Fordfarm (Dec 27, 2005)

My Dad had a couple Guernseys in the 60's. We used them for "milk cows". Didn't sell any milk, but we always had fresh milk and CREAM!.....mmmmmmmmm! Mom used to make homemade cottage cheese and other cheese. You've not tasted REAL cottage cheese until you taste homemade!


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