The Alderney Cow

The term 'Alderney Cow' found in literature from Tobias Smollet to A.A.Milne, indicates a small, fawn, dairy cow, once popular in England with the landed gentry and prosperous farmers, often used as a house cow and yielding delicious rich milk and yellow cream. These animals were probably known as 'Alderneys' because all Channel Island cattle, whether transported for sale from Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney or even France, arrived in England from the last port of call - Alderney - in what was known in the ports as the Alderney Boat. In fact not more than 4% of the cattle known as 'Alderneys' in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were actually from this Island. All Channel Island and some French cattle were so similar that English buyers did not distinguish between them.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, interest in improving the Island breeds led to the development of marked differences between the Guernsey and Jersey types and by 1862 the two main islands had banned each other's cattle from their shows. On the other hand the exchange of cattle between Guernsey and Alderney has never been disallowed, and the best of the cows and heifers bought by Guernsey farmers from Alderney were registered as Guernseys in the official Guernsey Herd Book from the very first addition in 1882.

Nevertheless, at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century a cow that was truly an Alderney - born and bred on the island and distinctly different from the Guernsey or the Jersey - became famous in its own right, if only for a short time and in spite of the fact that it was never registered as a separate breed. Though no documentary evidence has been found, it seems most probable that at the time of the building of the forts and the breakwater in Alderney - the 1850's and 60's - (when the population suddenly increased from about 1000 to 5000 ), cattle were brought in from both Jersey and Guernsey to satisfy the extra demand for butter, milk, cheese and meat. However it happened, there is no doubt that an excellent cross-bred dairy cow developed on the Island.

Some Islanders still remember the last of these cows and a few photographs exist. They were smaller than the Guernsey, even of that time, but not so small as the Jersey. They had deep chests and rather short legs. Their faces were long, like a Guernsey, but "dished" like a Jersey and they had the prominent eye of the Jersey, in-turning horns and a pronounced white area round the nose. They were famous for the richness and quantity of the milk they produced from scanty food, their easy temperament and specially for their well attached and capacious milk bags.

When the population of Alderney dropped back below 2000 in the 1880's and 90's, the sale of these Alderneys ( always registered as Guernseys by the buyers) to Guernsey and then to the UK became an important supplement to the economy of the Island. A lucrative cattle trade became established between the Channel Islands and the United States at the end of the 19th century, but it was not until 1910 that US buyers were allowed, by their own American Guernsey Cattle Club, to buy direct from Alderney. The regular sales of cattle that followed meant that over a quarter of the yearly production of heifer calves and a significant number of bulls were sold and shipped. A few of the young men of the Island travelled with the cattle to America and most of these stayed on as emigrants to the U.S. Correspondence with some of these and with the American Guernsey Cattle Club has clearly established that the cattle from Alderney were never kept separate from cattle from Guernsey in America. They were regarded as Guernseys by the farmers there, who would not buy Alderneys that were not in the Guernsey Herd Book.

Sadly the temptingly high prices paid by American buyers led to the over-sale of the best of the Alderneys. Virtually all the prize bulls and sometimes whole families of prize cows and heifers went off to America. As a result the Island cattle deteriorated and the Americans stopped buying. One generous buyer, however, presented the Royal Alderney Agricultural Society with two top class Guernsey bulls and from then on the size and dairy qualities of the cattle improved, but they had of course become much more like Guernseys. Within 5 years all bulls on the Island were Guernsey or Guernsey cross. This meant the end of the true Alderney type and the last calf of true Alderney blood was born on July 16th 1927. Any pure Alderney cows, therefore, taken off the island to Guernsey in 1940, when the Channel Islands were occupied by the German army, would have been at least 13 years old and none of these survived the evacuation to return to Alderney after the war.

That the true Alderney cattle, between 1900 and 1920, were very fine animals, is witnessed by their success. For instance, our most famous bull, Masher 63, had no less than 32 daughters who achieved the Advanced Register in America and the cow, Hayes Rosie, born and bred on Alderney, was named as World Champion Guernsey for her milk production in 1904. In a letter dated 1988 Harry A Herman, Secretary of the Missouri Dairy Organisations, University of Missouri wrote that "the Alderney influence" [on the American Guernsey Herd] is by now "highly diluted but it made an important contribution to our present day Guernseys." The Island has every reason to be proud of its cows and regret their disappearance.

Rosemary Hanbury and Felicity Crump for the Alderney Society, 1988.

With grateful acknowledgements to Joe Burland for advice and to Mrs Vera Pick for a key photograph.