The Jersey breed is the most widely spread among English dairy breeds. It originated in the small island of the English Channel which lends it its name. Its evolution dates back to the year 1700 and it has been adapted to the people’s need. The reduced areas made dairy cows give place to cropping.

We are not certain about the original breeds that composed it, but the most probable are Britain’s small black cattle and Normandy’s big red. This theory agrees with the fact that the islands of the Jersey Channel, Guersney and Aldderney, formed the Duchy of Normandy (France) later under Great Britain`s domain.

Such was the interest arisen by this noble variety of small and rustic animals that the islanders decided to protect them. As from 1743 the entrance of any other kind of cattle not intended for slaughter was forbidden. The genetic purity of the breed was guaranteed by means of this restriction. As from the year 2008, foreign genetics is finally allowed to get into the Island, as a result from the pressure of some breeders.

The animals exported to England since 1784 were subject to the fat yield test – which was the quality standard for the time – and they confirmed the superiority of the Jersey milk.

Some decades later the demand for Jersey cows increased and during the XVIII century many animals have been exported to from South Africa, Australia, Tasmania and specially New Zealand, which soon became the 80% of the country’s dairy herds.

In 1833 the Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society was created. This entity is devoted to the development and improvement of the Jersey breed.

In 1876 begins the Herd Book, which demanded pure breed and production controls for registration. The mild zones of South America begin to acquire Jersey animals. Argentina, in 1909, Uruguay in 1910 and later in Brazil, where the breed soon became significant due to the animal’s resistance to heat.