Golden Guernsey

Golden Guernseys eat pumpkin

The Golden Guernsey is a rare breed of goat from the Bailiwick of Guernsey on the Channel Islands. They were first brought to Great Britain by Rudi Sweg in 1965 and a sub-breed has evolved known as the British Guernsey.^[1]

Origin

The exact origin of these animals is uncertain but since goat bones have been found in dolmens (a type of Megalithic tomb) as old as 2000 B.C. on the islands, it is likely that the breed began to evolve into its current form about this time. The ancestors of the Golden Guernsey are believed to have been the Oberhasli and Syrian breeds. The first documented reference to the Golden Guernsey in its current form dates from 1826 when reference to a "golden goat" was printed in a guide book.

During the Second World War when Guernsey was occupied, Miriam Milbourne risked her life to save a small herd of Golden Guernsey goats by hiding them for several years.^[2]

In 1965 the Golden Guernsey was exported to Great Britain and the English Golden Guernsey Club, later to become the Golden Guernsey Goat Society, was formed.^[3]

Characteristics

As its name suggests, the goat is golden in color, with hues ranging from pale blond to deep bronze. They are smaller and more fine-boned than other British milking goats, and there is great variety in coat length. The males are sometimes horned but the vast majority are not. Their personalities have been described as "very docile, very friendly". The males have been said to be unusually smelly.^[4]

The goat is efficient milking livestock for its relatively small size, producing an average yield of 3.16 kilograms of milk per day; this is less than most Swiss goats, but the milk's high butterfat and protein content (3.72% and 2.81%, respectively) ^[5] makes up for the small yield.

Footnotes

↑ Goat Breeds
↑ "THE GOLDEN GUERNSEY". Guernsey Goat Society.
↑ Breed History: On Guernsey, Channel Islands
↑ Docile Golden Guernsey Goats, Live at the West Show
↑ Golden Guernsey

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Golden Guernsey.

Golden Guernsey Goat Society

Livestock breeds of the British Isles

Cattle

Beef cattle	Angus Beef Shorthorn Belted Galloway Blue Grey Devon Dexter English Longhorn Galloway Hereford Highland Luing Shorthorn South Devon Sussex Welsh Black

Dairy cattle	Ayrshire Guernsey Jersey Milking Shorthorn

Dual purpose	British White Gloucester Pembroke Red Poll Shetland Whitebred Shorthorn

Primitive	Chillingham wild cattle Vaynol White Park cattle

Sheep

Extant	Beulah Speckled Face Bluefaced Leicester Border Leicester British Milk Cheviot Clun Forest Cotswold Dalesbred Derbyshire Gritstone Devon Closewool Devon Longwoolled Dorset Down English Leicester Exmoor Horn Galway Greyface Dartmoor Hampshire Herdwick Hill Radnor Kerry Hill Lincoln Llanwenog Lleyn Lonk Norfolk Horn Oxford Down Portland Romney Rough Fell Ryeland Scottish Blackface Shetland Shropshire Southdown sheep Suffolk Swaledale Teeswater Welsh Mountain Wensleydale Whitefaced Woodland Wiltshire Horn

Primitive	Boreray Castlemilk Moorit Hebridean Jacob Manx Loaghtan North Ronaldsay Soay

Extinct	Scottish Dunface

Pigs

Extant	Berkshire British Landrace British Lop British Saddleback Essex Gloucestershire Old Spots Hampshire Large Black Large White Middle White Oxford Sandy and Black Tamworth Welsh Wessex Saddleback

Extinct	Cumberland Grice Lincolnshire Curly-coated Small Black Small White Yorkshire Blue and White

Goats

Anglo-Nubian Bilberry British Alpine Golden Guernsey Irish

Poultry

Chickens	Cornish Derbyshire Redcap Dorking Ixworth Marsh Daisy Modern Game Modern Langshan Norfolk Grey Old English Game Old English Pheasant Fowl Orpington Rosecomb Scots Dumpy Scots Grey Sebright Sussex

Ducks	Abacot Ranger Aylesbury Orpington Khaki Campbell Magpie Shetland Welsh Harlequin

Geese	Brecon Buff Shetland

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