Where have all the cows gone?

Our new columnist, Donna Le Marrec, now has the last word

Ihave loved Jersey cows since childhood when my grandparents lived on a working farm.

In those days farming appeared to be much more prominent, even during a booming tourism industry in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Jersey cows were in fields everywhere – usually in small herds and tethered with a rope – and it was not unusual to see the occasional Breton farmworker passed out drunk in a hedge having spent his wages at the nearby shop!

Now, I am very fortunate to live on a quiet country lane again, surrounded by fields of cows, but with the added benefit of a relatively close Marks & Spencer store – handy when we run out of life’s essentials!

My ‘commute’ to work generally takes four minutes although I am quite often the last one in and it’s not unusual for me, when I am later than usual, to WhatsApp my colleagues with the words ‘cow crossing’ and a photo.

There are three ‘cow crossings’ on the way to my place of work from farms in very close proximity to each other. Each ‘stopping’ makes me smile as these wonderful creatures amble across the road, some occasionally pausing to be nosy, chewing the cud before being chivvied into the field. They also seem to know instinctively that it is time for milking and patiently wait, huddled together, to cross the road long before the farm workers come to get them in the early afternoon. Most people seem to sit and wait patiently in their cars while this bucolic scene unfolds. I do, however, remember a neighbour’s son getting quite volatile some years ago with the local farmer because he was late for work. She responded with the quaint response ‘Eff off. If you want to live in the country - get used to it’, or words to that effect – and good on her!

Looking at statistics on the government’s website, Gov.je (which only seem to go up to 2018), there appears to have been a steady decline in the number of cows and heifers in our Island over the years. There were 4,430 in 2018, but this decline seems to be speeding up and the Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society website states that there are currently 4,000 cows, 2,500 of which are in milk – so an 11% decline just in the last three years.

My three cow crossings have sadly and recently been reduced to two, with one farmer giving up dairy farming completely. It appears to me that, despite the promotion of and support for local produce, we now also seem to grow less vegetables (and fruit) than we ever did before. And, despite the global fame of our most famous Island resident, you can no longer buy local cheese (except for an occasional goat’s cheese) although there is locally reared beef and pork to be had and LOTS of eggs. One thought I had during last year’s lockdown was: what would ever happen if the ferries just stopped? I doubt we would even be able to feed ourselves.

So, in the meanwhile, I am just enjoying seeing these gorgeous creatures in what green fields we have left, appreciating what farmers do – that rare breed that live and actually work in our historic granite farmsteads – until that day when there are more horses than cows, and all of our farmsteads are refurbished and gentrified for the high net worths and hedge fund managers that we seem so desperately anxious to attract to our shores.