The Golden Guernsey Goat is a charming little creature, which makes a fine house goat! With their lovely appearance and great milk, these goats have sweet personalities also! Golden Guernsey Goats are sweet and docile. They are quite calm and are easily accustomed to human company!
Extremely hardy and practically weatherproof, Golden Guernsey Goats need little maintenance! They make good pet goats because of their amiable personalities and their good milk production. With a delicate bone structure, Golden Guernsey Goats are small and dainty in appearance. The skin has a golden pigmentation, and the coat is golden in color!
Shades range from honey blonde to brassy gold! Golden Guernseys have slightly scooped faces and are usually polled. Their hair may be long or short, but always there is fringing present. There are no tassels on the faces of Golden Guernsey Goats, who have straight ears that turn upward at the tips!
Golden Guernsey Goats have been known to produce over three kilograms of milk in 24 hours! Generally, the milk is three and three quarters butterfat and two and four fifths protein, making it ideal for cheesemaking. No one really knows where the Golden Guernsey Goat originated previous to making its way to the Channel Islands of the United Kingdom.
Between 1920 and 1950, golden goats who were indigenous to the Isle of Guernsey were crossed with Anglo-Nubian Goats and a variety of Swiss breeds. The indigenous Guernsey Goats have been mentioned in literature as early as 1826, and it is thought that they had Syrian, French, and Maltese ancestors!
The survival of the goats is primarily the achievement of Miriam Milbourne, who began improving them in 1924! In 1965, the Golden Guernsey Goat herd book was established and the goats received their own British society in 1967. Golden Guernsey Goats are also known as Golden Gessenays or Guernesiais Goats!
Golden Guernsey Goats make fine house goats because of their docility. They do well in small yards with little shelter and are adaptable to either free grazing or stabled feeding. A breeding program was established for Golden Guernsey Goats in the 1950’s and persists today.
Although complaints have been made that Golden Guernsey have lower milk production than other goats, one must take into consideration that they have a lower feed intake than most goats!