Jersey milk is absolutely fine for cheesemaking. I WWOOFed on several farms that made awesome cheeses with Jersey milk - including an incredible cheddar which had a fine following at the local farmers’ market, and had, I think, won awards.
Jersey meat is lean, dark and has unparalleled flavour. She has the widest pelvis of any cow, so can take any bull breed and produce a beefier calf if that’s what you want from her.
And if you like to have animals you love, no cow has more personality than a Jersey.
You and the cow bond when you milk her, a very strong bond - like that between a horse and its owner/rider.
The only downsides with Jerseys are :
- not very wet weather hardy, so you will need good shelter or barns for the winter
- horned, so you might want to dehorn calves (or use a polled breed for the bull)
- hugely productive - she will rear her calf and still have a gallon for you, and once he’s speaned, she will give you tens of litres every day when she’s on decent grass
But the upsides more than compensate, provided you can use all the milk!
And you don’t have to have two Jerseys. If one Jersey is enough milk, get something less productive for the second cow. (That’s why we kept our Red Devon cross on - we don’t want 2x Jersey levels of milk!). But it has to be a cow that can be kept the same way the Jersey needs kept, of course, so they can be together.
Topic: Milking Hereford or Welsh Black or White British (Read 6069 times)
