RARE BREEDS TRUST OF AUSTRALIA
powered by TidyHQCATTLE : Alderney
CATTLE : Alderney
Country of Origin
Alderney, Channel Islands, United Kingdom
Australian Status
LOST
International Status
LOST
Uses
Milk
Breed traits
Although exhibiting many of the traits of the other Channel Island dairy breeds, the Alderney were smaller with a distinct deer-like appearance. They were docile, and gave abundant quantities of milk, rich in cream.1 The colour of the coat was variable, ranging through shades of dun, fawn, light red and yellow, either with or without patches of white, with occasional darker colours.2
History
The Alderney is an extinct breed of dairy cattle. It originated in, and is named for, the island of Alderney in the Channel Islands. It was one of three breeds of Channel Island cattle, the others being the Jersey and the Guernsey. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries "Alderney" was a general term for cattle from the archipelago; they were exported to mainland Britain and Normandy.3
Most of the pure-breed Alderney cattle were removed from the island to Guernsey in the summer of 1940 due to the German occupation. On Guernsey, the cattle were interbred with local breeds. The few pure-breed cattle remaining on Alderney were killed and eaten by the Germans in 1944.4
History in Australia
One of the earliest mentions of an Alderney in Australia is from 1805 when mention is made of an Alderney bull sold in NSW for £50.5 A Sydney, NSW newspaper article from 1878 mentions the Alderney cattle, although the writer states they are also called “Jerseys”.6 Another Brisbane, Queensland article from 1893 states “it was a misnomer to call the Jersey cattle ‘Alderney' cattle,”7 and the writer then went through the distinctive differences between the Jersey and Alderney based on the sketch included in this article.
In an article read to the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of South Australia in 1882, Mr. Bakewell, of Quorndon, SA, a breeder of Alderney, was referenced with high praise for the breed as a dairy breed. He states “his annual average return has been from 220 lbs, to 240 lbs. of butter per cow. The Breton cows are very docile, and generally much admired for their diminutive size (about 38 inches high); they yield milk rich in quality. This breed is worthy the attention of the amateur farmer.”8
Despite the general praise of the cow as a dairy breed, in South Australia the distinct Alderney breed was probably lost by the late 1800s due to interbreeding with Guernseys, and the interchangeability of the names Jersey and Alderney for the Channel Island cattle.
The Alderney was added along with the Angus, Ayrshire, and Brittany in the breed section of the 1875 Royal Agricultural Society of NSW.9 A herd was still extant in 1887 when Mr. Mackinnon of Glenferrie disposed of his pure Alderney cattle.10
In 1910 the Guernsey and Alderney Societies amalgamated ending the breed as a seperate entity in Australia.11
Photo Credit
Top: BBC historical archives
Bottom: Alderney house cow sketch from newsarticle
For more historical information, please visit https://www.priaulxlibrary.co.uk/articles/article/alderney-cow
Page by Carol Wormald, 2025
