Reviving the Iconic Guernsey: The BBRT's 2022 Project to Save a Dairy Breed from Extinction

Breed History

Guernsey cattle were developed on the Island of Guernsey which is one of the Channel Islands off the coast of France. The breed was developed about 1,000 years ago by monks who moved to the island and brought with them the best bloodlines of French cattle, Normandy Brindles, also known as Alderneys and the Froment du Léon breed from Brittany. Guernsey cattle also inhabit the Islands of Alderney, Herm and Sark. In 1819 a law was passed on the islands prohibiting the importation of live cattle to the islands for any purpose. It wasn’t until 1700 that Guernsey cattle were first recorded as a separate breed.

Characteristics

Guernsey cattle are generally a beautiful golden fawn colour with white markings although variations from a brownish red and white to a very light fawn and white are common. They are medium-size dairy cows with a majority of mature cows weighing 550 kgs to 700 kgs.

Guernsey’s are known for their quiet temperament, calving ease, early maturity, and efficiency in converting forage to milk solids. The breed is adaptable to extreme climate conditions as well as various housing systems. Guernsey milk is characteristically high in milk solids and has a distinctive golden colour, resulting from its unusually high content of Beta Carotene.

For many years, the breed was kept in small herds on the various islands as mentioned above where the animals were frequently seen at pasture being tethered by the horns

The breed spread to the mainland UK in the eighteenth century when large numbers of cattle were moved from the Channel Islands to the mainland UK. where it was especially popular in Cornwall and southern England.

· By 1980, many UK mainland breeders had started looking toward overseas Guernsey cattle genetics to help them in breeding milkier and larger Canadian bred Guernsey breed cattle These Canadian imports were taller and heavier than the mainland Guernsey cattle that originated from the Island of Guernsey.

Guernsey’s in Canada

The first Guernseys arrived in Canada unintentionally. Guernseys were being taken by ship to New England states when rough seas forced a landing in Nova Scotia. The residents were so impressed by the cattle that they asked the Federal Minister of Agriculture to import some of these easy-tempered, golden cattle. In1878, Sir John Abbott, who later became Prime Minister of Canada in 1891, made the official importation of Guernseys to Canada. The breed became very popular in the Maritimes and eventually, several herds travelled overland to British Columbia.

By the early 1990s, there were still Original Population (OP) Guernsey cattle aplenty on the Island of Guernsey but more and more UK mainland breeders were by this time, resorting to the usage of Canadian or American Guernsey genetics. The Original Population Island Guernsey, generally accepted as being genetically the same as the UK mainland OP Guernsey, was fast disappearing as a result of changed genetics due to introgression which in this case was the result of a large scale breeding involving overseas Guernsey genetics.

The plight of the fast disappearing Original Population Island Guernsey was flagged up with the Rare Breeds Conservation Trust (RBST) around the time of 2010 and again flagged up at the 2019 Adam Henson, Cotswold Farm hosted Cattle Seminar by a deputation of breeders to include past and present presidents of the Guernsey Cattle Society. This resulted in nothing by way of any conservation attempt to save the breed and with no conservation trust or body, other than the British Breeds Revival Trust offering anything more than a watching brief.

At this time, unaided by any other body or trust, the BBRT took over the role of saving and reviving the pure original Population Island Guernsey breed. Charles Castle, in his role as a trustee of the BBRT, began working with key breeders in a bid to save and rebuild the breed. With a limited amount of stored frozen pure semen available but only one elderly, barren, purebred female surviving, a breeding programme was drawn up by the BBRT. This was based on a system of back-grading using 100 per cent pure archive bank frozen semen on less than 100 per cent OP pure breeding females that carry limited overseas Guernsey breed genetics.

In 2021, the last 100 percent surviving Guernsey female died at age 21 years of age and acting as a trustee of the BBRT, Charles Castle MRCVS euthanized “Grace” the last surviving purebred original population Guernsey cow prior to harvesting her ovaries and taking tissue samples that were sent in haste to the laboratories of Gemini Genetics. This marked history in being one of the first-ever tissue sampling collection projects aimed at the eventual cloning of the donor animal.

A remnant population in the form of a small herd of unregistered but purebred Guernsey cattle was identified by the BBRT on the Island of Little Sark in 2021 and, hopefully, this will be included in the breed revival programme.

The BBRT 2022 Revival project aimed at reviving the very close to extinction original population Guernsey will continue in 2022 and is likely to last several years before this iconic dairy breed can be regarded as safe.

Thanks must be given to Caroline & Martin Kelner for their permission in allowing tissue sampling associated with “Grace” the last living 100 per cent purebred OP Guernsey cow.

Thanks, also, to Charles Castle, MRCVS for his generously donated time in collecting, preparing and despatching tissue samples and ovaries to the laboratories of Gemini Genetics.

Thanks, also, to Gemini Genetics for their generous advice and partnership working with the BBRT in what is the first-ever preparation for a project aimed at cloning a domesticated farm animal.