The Golden Guernsey is a rare breed that was nearly lost in the last century. The origin of the 'golden' goat is not precisely known, but it is believed to have French, Syrian, and Maltese ancestory. The first written evidence of them was in an 1826 book about the Channel Islands. A few were found on the island of Guernsey and brought to England in 1937.
One small herd of purebred Golden Guernseys started from frozen embryos resides at Southwind Farm in New York state. Due to current import restrictions, no more of these goats have entered the country. A number of dedicated breeders have banded together to use American dairy goat foundation stock to breed up to a line of purebred Guernsey goats. The Guernsey goat being developed in the United States will be called the British Guernsey. The herdbood tracking the British Guernsey breeding program is currently kept by the British Goat Society. When high enough numbers of British Guernsey have been developed in America, it is the intent to apply to have the breed formally recognized by the American Dairy Goat Association.
Many Rocks Farm acquired a Golden Guernsey buck in 2007. Swind Pocono (pictured below) has successfully produced 10 doe kids with our Oberhasli and Saanan foundation stock. We are proud to be part of the effort to preserve Guernsey goat genetics in the United States.
The milk of the Golden Guernsey is yellow in color and higher in butterfat than the milk of other available dairy goat breeds. We believe Guernsey milk will yield a superior quality goat milk soap, a nice bonus for our farm product line. (to find out more about goat milk soap products: click here)
