By Alasdair Crosby
From the Aurochs to the Jersey cow. That’s a time period of about 30,000 years – but don’t worry, the article won’t be 30,000 words.
The aurochs was the ancestor of all modern cattle, and bred by humanity just like the animal that was originally a wolf and from which we have bred into dogs of all breeds, shapes, sizes and temperaments.
They were very large and very fierce. 5ft -6ft shoulder height, with massive, elongated broad horns some 2½ ft long. They weighed about a ton – compare a Jersey cow, at less than half a ton) So, not an animal to poke a stick at for fun or to try to ride.
The bulls were of a black colour with a narrow, lightly coloured stripe down its back and the cows were of a reddish-brown colour (sounds familiar?) Both sexes also probably had a lightly coloured muzzle ring. Calves were born in a reddish-brown colour and male individuals turned black in their first year.
We know all this because they survived for long enough for naturalists to take such notes about their appearance.
They feature in cave paintings such as Lascaux – dated to about 17,000 years ago and they ranged all over Europe, the Middle East, India and North Africa.
As you might expect, this mighty beast figured on the dinner menu of early humans, who played a large part in driving the Aurochs into extinction (when they weren’t domesticating it, thus creating the line that led to modern cows). However, small, dwindling populations of Aurochs survived well into modern times, the last known individual being hunted down in a Polish forest in 1627.
Julius Caesar – writing when there were still plenty of Aurochs about in Roman times in the forests of Gaul, said they were as big as elephants (given to exaggeration, our Julius) and the people who hunted them were very brave – which hardy needs to be said. But he made the point, for the avoidance of doubt, that he had hunted them.
The person who first came up with the idea on taming these cattle and, especially, the person who first tried to milk one of them, must, I feel, have been insanely brave.
These wild cattle were only domesticated after 10,000 BC, when the very first settled communities had been founded. This was in what is now Turkey and Iraq and what archaeologists call the Fertile Crescent.… geneticists have studied the DNA of this extinct breed and have come to the conclusion that most of the global cattle herd of today comes from no more than 60 aurochs in that Middle Eastern part of the world.
Their massive horns decorated buildings in some of the very earliest settled communities, such as Catal Huyuk in Anatolia, about 8,000 years ago – so they have always had a religious significance – as illustrated by the Bible story of the Israelites worshipping a golden calf during their Exodus.
Traces of their temperament have survived in breeds such as bulls bred for the bullring in Spain, and there have been various attempts in comparatively recent times to breed back to the original line. So, in Germany between the wars, the Heck brothers – two zoo keepers – tried to breed back to the Aurochs and they were encouraged by the Nazi party – since the Aurochs had all the characteristics they admired: – strong, formidable, aggressive, violent, bad tempered, in short, an ideal role model for German youth.
In France there is a Ferme de l’Aurochs in the Jura region – with a restaurant where, I’m told, bifteak á l’Aurochs can be enjoyed with pommes frites and a bottle of wine.
A different strain of aurochs was domesticated in India and these were the ancestors of the Indian Zebu cattle. Then, in ancient India cows was already an object of veneration, just as they ae today in Jersey. An ancient Sanskrit word for ‘king’ is translated as ‘keeper of cows’. Dairy cattle, of course, symbolised goddesses that provided for mankind. All over the ancient and classical world cows were prized possessions, and almost analogous to mothers, as they gave milk to humanity to keep them healthy in the same way as human mothers do to their children.
In Greek myth – think of Zeus changing himself into a bull to abduct Europa, or Hercules’s seventh labour: capturing a bull that had been wreaking havoc by uprooting crops and levelling orchard walls – and with which the Queen of Crete unwisely fell in love because it was so handsome – these stories derive from the fierce aurochs that once roamed the wildernesses of ancient Europe.
One last thing about the aurochs – as you may have noticed, I find them quite interesting – Although it was hunted to extinction, the DNA is still alive and distributed among a number of the ancient original cattle breeds. Even a Jersey bull can have flashbacks to an Aurochs ancestry, unless handled with due caution.
Hopes for the resurrection of the Aurochs persist, via a process called de-extinction, which goes hand in hand with the present enthusiasm for rewilding, and a genetics programme at the University of Utrecht is confident that it can breed a lookalike Aurochs within a few years – so we may once again see an aurochs – or aurochs-type – with our own eyes.
As time moved on, and the process of domestication continued, so, over millennia, undesirable qualities such as fierceness, were gradually bred out of cattle. If it was your job to ‘call the cattle home’ across the sands of Dee or anywhere else, you might not want to have to climb a tree out of harm’s way just because one of the cows was feeling a bit grumpy. So cattle were diminished in size, so as to make them more manageable.
So, human migrations from east to west are not just a thing of present news headlines. Prehistory gives us a long view on this very topical subject: from the Near East there have been constant migrations into Europe, and the migrating people would have bought their livestock cattle with them – and it is assumed that the Jersey cow’s tolerance of heat and ability to thrive in difficult conditions come ultimately from stock that was bred originally in the Near East.
These early Neolithic people were farmers, who travelled to western Europe either through the Balkans and Central Europe, or via north Africa and Spain.
Leaping forwards to early mediaeval period, although no one thought of pedigree breeds as such, cattle of a brownish colour, or brown and white, were kept in many European countries.
Specifically in Early Middle Ages we read of a Viking chief called Bjorn – who at least for a time was settled in the Channel Islands and nearby – the town of Barneville is supposedly derived from his name – and Bjorn fought battles (that’s what Viking chiefs did) in Brittany and Normandy. After a successful battle with a Breton king, he took, in tribute, a heard of the king’s brown and white cows (which we know for a fact) and then (presumably) returned with his tribute to the Channel Islands area. Were these brown and white cows the foundation stock of the Jersey cow? We don’t know, but it is an intriguing theory.
We really don’t know much about the Jersey cow until early modern times – for a long while it was eclipsed by what was then the more famous Jersey sheep. But by the 17th Century, Jersey cows were being exported to England and known as Alderneys. And as ships began to cross oceans and colonies were founded, Jerey cows would have been taken on board a sailing ship to provide milk for the voyage, and at journey’s end, to continue doing so for the new communities. We know, for example, that George Poingdestre took some cows with him to North America in 1657.
Leap forward again – 18th Century. With its good looks, gentle nature, strong constitution and rich milk, the Jersey cow had become famous. They were often kept as decorative animals to adorn the great private parks and landed estates of the time.
In the Island, in 1786, to discourage some farmers from importing cows from France, the States passed a new law, whereby any farmer who brought French cattle into Jersey would be fined 200 livres (about £3) for each animal. This law was later extended and finally an act of 1878 declared that no bovine animals could be imported into the Island. This law has ensured the purity of the Jersey breed ever since.
In the 19th and 20th Centuries, Jersey cows were being sold all over the world and herds were being established in many different countries.
Then we come to the Jersey Herd Book, founded in 1866 by the Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society (RJA&HS), whereby virtually all Island herds became pedigree registered. The Jersey cow is now the second largest dairy breed in the world.
As is well-known, Jersey breed genetics are being used to improve native African breeds, with great success and this project has helped to improve the lives of poor rural families living on the breadline.
And, bringing the story right up to date, the relaxation in 2008 of the ban on importing pedigree genetics from Jersey herds elsewhere has had the effect of improving the breed in its Island home.
Not often do I use footballing language, but it would be fair to say that the use of modern genetic has ‘brought the Jersey cow home’ – back to the Island, and ready for a future that could be just as interesting as its past.
This article was first published in the 2025 Journal of the Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society
