a breed of dairy cow bred in England (the island of Jersey) by improving the local Normandy and Brittany cattle and selecting for fat properties. Inbreeding was widely used, and as a result, the breed’s delicate, dry, and sometimes overdeveloped constitution has been reinforced. The animals have a broad, indented forehead, well-developed eye sockets, and a short facial skull area; the neck is long and smooth; the chest is deep but narrow; the withers are often sharp and high; the ribs slanted and rounded; the loins are long; and the rump broad. There are often flaws in the animals’ exterior or constitution. The coloring ranges from light chestnut and fawn to dark brown. The bulls weigh 600-700 kg, and the cows, 360-400 kg. The cows’ milk yield is an average of 3,500 kg per year, and the fat content of the milk is 5-6 percent.
Jersey cattle are raised in England, the USA, Denmark, New Zealand, Canada, France, and Australia, among other countries. They were first imported to the USSR in 1947. Jersey bulls are crossbred with cows of other dairy breeds in order to increase the fat content.
E. K. MERKUR’EVA