The orginal size of the "Old Jersey Cow"

[Haggis]

I was reading an article in Countryside magazine concerning the orginal Jersey cow being a miniature, and I thought to post this bit.

From American Dairy Cattle. Their Past and Future. By E. Parmalee Prentice. NY 1942.

Concerning the size of the original “Old Jersey Cow”.

[COLOR=Blue]“There are Jersey breeders of the present day [around 1942] who refuse to believe that these pictures accord with the facts of Jersey history. Breeders of a hundred years ago took a different view. To them, Colonel Le Couteur was one of the foremost promoters of Jersey interests and, therefore, on February 27, 1850, members of the Royal Jersey Society presneted him with a telescope in recognition of his services. "Few of the Society`s officers," the Secretary says, "have so well merited such a testimonial of appreciation."
Colonel Le Couteur was not willing, however, taht the work of improvement should stop where it then stood. Jersey cattle can be made still better, he says, but -
The evil was, and still exists, that most Jersey farmers, like many others, never thought of crossing with a view to improvement, conscious of possessing a breed excellent for the production of rich milk and cream... the Jersey farmer sought no further. He was content to possess an ugly, ill-formed animal, with flat sides, wide between the ribs and hips, cathammed, narrow and high hips, with a hollow back.
Of course, in the days when it was considered "undeniably bad farming, therefore bad economy, to breed and keep cattle which are useful only for their milking or working properties," it was not profitable to own such an animal as the Old Jersey Cow. The amount received from the sale of milk was not enough eighty years ago, by itself, to make a dairy profitable, so that, unless the cow at the end of her lactation brought a good price from the butcher, the net result was a loss. Englishmen demanded dairy cattle that made good feeders when not milking. This demand, Mr. Charles Vancouver said, the Channel Island cattle did not meet, for, if they are not crossed with a larger Englsih breed, their weight "will seldom exceed six score per quarter" and "however fat and well finished for slaughter" their meat is "certainly inferior to the quality of English beef in general."[/COLOR]

Even allowing a generous 50% dressed weight for an “Old Jersey Cow” at “six score per quarter”, 120 pounds, she would have had a live weight of over 900 pounds, just as does the average Jersey cow today.

Concerning the size of the “miniature” Jersey Cow.

“In 1800 Dr. James Anderson said of Guernsey cattle that they were the smallest breed of cows he had yet seen that were natives of Europe. Dwarf cattle were much sought during the 19th century for ornaments on the lawns of country estates, as the Punch cartoon shows, and as appears also from such advertisements as those offering a Kerry cow 41 inches high, or India Dwarf bullocks 33 inches in height "including the hump," or a "half-bred Alderney, very small", or a halfbred Alderney "small and compact park-like cow." On September 16, 1850 Mr. Robert Coles, Honorary Secretary of the Bristol Zoological Society, Bristol, advertised to Noblemen, Country-Gentlemen and amateurs, that he had fancy cattle to dispose of - a small bull and a cow from the Grain Coast, Africa, three years old and measuring about 2 feet 6 inches high. "They have nothing of the buffalo about them, but are most like the small Guernsey breed."
On February 15, 1850, Mr. E.P. Fowler advertised an Alderney cow, due to calve on the third of March, and "pure red; smallest of age ever seen.".
It surely is a curious spectacle of human perversity that at a time when there was great demand for meat , and while the Colling Brothers, Cruickshank and Bates were receiving large prices for heavy beef cattle, the Channel Islands permitted their cattle to become dwarfs of no practical value whatever - unless it were to provide milk for passengers on small sailing ships where goats were sometimes carried. Several writers of the first part of the century spoke of the diminutive size of Alderney cattle and their deer-like form. George Garrard said that in color Alderneys were distinct from all other cattle in England, "some red and white, and some black and white, &c. in common with other cattle," yet their colors are more brilliant and in greater variety than the colors of any other neat stock in Britain. It was for this reason that these little animals, so small as to be called toy cattle, were desired as ornaments upon the lawns of great country estates in England. "As to the Alderneys," a writer in the Agricultural Magazine said "they are a mere fancy breed, looking pretty in a gentleman`spark.. very light in the carcase and small, when made fat come to no weight and are by no means suitable stock for a farmer." What they were has been well preserved for later days by the familiar pictures of Alderneys and Jerseys painted by Mr. Edwin Douglas. It seems that this ornamental use of Channel Island cattle made a market for them which British breeds have been glad to share. That there was some competition among ornamental cattle appears from an advertisement of a York- Shorthorn cross which it is said were "from their exxtreme beauty deserving the attention of purchasers for the park or paddock."

It seems that both “miniature” and regular sized Jersey cows are and were the original “Old Jersey Cow”.

[uncle Will in In.]

I've rode a jersey cow that would now be over 90 years old. Old Briney. That was the name of the people who Dad bought her from. My older siblings rode her when they brought the milk cows home from a pasture on a neighboring farm each evening. She was the size of ordinary jerseys today. I've seen my sister who was 11 go out in the pasture field with a cup and milk a cup full out of old Briney to make herself some cocoa.

[Haggis]

When I was a knee-britches boy, I used to ride an old Jersey in to the barn at milking time, of course that was in the mid '50's, so she would be in her 60's now I suppose. My Grandfather had a dairy, and he'd send two or three of us boys out to fetch up the cows, and we'd ride that old lead cow back to the barn. She had a great hand hammered bell around her neck and we thought we were head of the parade, up there on her back with that old bell ringing at every step. That old Jersey was about like the cows I have now. I'd sure pay a fair sum to hear that old bell again.

A lot of folks maintain that Jerseys always did come in all sizes, and some say otherwise; I guess it doesn't really matter what one wants to believe, but the history from 200 to 250 years back does give weights and sizes for Jersey cows on and from the Island of Jersey at quite a wide variance.

Back then, 1750 to 1850, was the hay-day of the dual purpose breeds; bulls had no value, steers were seldom if ever kept, and the "dual purpose" cows would be butchered once they had reached their full size and had been milked out. As best I can make of it; milk had a little value, butter had a pretty fair value, but beef was the real money, so a cow could have a calf, or two, maybe three before she reached her full size, and then she was milked out and sold for beef. Younger cows eat less, produce dairy products, perhaps a heifer calf or two, and then were sold for beef before they could go wrong; not so much difference between then and now in the dairy industry, except that cows were bred with the thought of beef over dairy in mind. In that world the Old Jersey Cow wasn't worth much in any size.

[Donna from Mo]

Here's our first milk cow Suzie, 1969, with my husband's sister on her. Somewhere we have pictures of her with a saddle on.

[Haggis]

A charming lass, and a fine looking Jersey. I like my cattle with horns.

[Donna from Mo]

Actually, I don't think that cow was Jersey; if she were, her nose would be black. Mostly Guernsey perhaps, with possibly some Shorthorn or Brown Swiss thrown in (she was slightly brindled). I do know she had more personality than any cow I've owned.

[Haggis]

Originally Posted by Donna from Mo

Actually, I don't think that cow was Jersey; if she were, her nose would be black. Mostly Guernsey perhaps, with possibly some Shorthorn or Brown Swiss thrown in (she was slightly brindled). I do know she had more personality than any cow I've owned.

I guess I was looking at her face; to me it looked dished in like a Jersey. I saw all the white on her belly, but I guess she just made me think Jersey first.

[Donna from Mo]

Who knows, she might have had Jersey in her. Jerseys are my favorite, and I've had a bunch of them. Thanks to Jerzeygurl, I have a baby one now. First one I've owned in many years.

[Philip]

I looked at her and thought she looked like she has some Jersey but also a beef breed in her - much more solid than a typical Jersey (apart from the colour). Also doesn't appear to have the distinctive band around the nose thats the mark of a true Jersey. Sorry haggis - I don't like my cows with horns so we cross ours with Lowlines - naturally polled