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Why is Pedigree important?

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Pedigree Certificates

When a Jersey animal obtains a part or whole pedigree registration status, this means the Society has approved the animal’s purity (ancestry), traceability (unique ear tag number) and also its authenticity to be true to the Jersey breed.
Each Jersey cow or bull put forward for registration in the Society’s Pedigree Herd Book has to meet the pedigree registration criteria, which includes ancestry checks and where applicable parentage proofing.

Click on the button below to view/download an example Pedigree Certificate.

CERTIFICATE

Traceability

In the UK we identify each dairy cow by giving each animal a unique number known as an ear tag. An ear tag number is made up of farms holding number and the unique number for that individual animal. Once the animal has been approved for registration in the Society’s Pedigree Herd Book, the ear tag number becomes known as the animal’s official herd book number.

Pedigree Qualification

The breeder of every Jersey cow or bull submitted for pedigree registration, must submit full details of the animal’s ancestry and birth records. The Society assesses the animal by looking at the percentage of purity contained within the animal’s ancestry and where applicable parentage proving using DNA profiling. The Society has a set criteria’s which each animal must meet and pass before it can be accepted into the UK Pedigree Herd Book as either a part pedigree or full pedigree Jersey.

Pedigree Herd Book

Each year the Society produces an annual herd book. The annual herd book contains all the pedigree Jersey cattle registered with the Society in that given year. The Society also has an online herd book which contains all the pedigree Jersey cattle registered with the Society since records were computerised in 1985, prior to 1985 all annual herd books were produced in hard copy format and are in archive at the JCS Pavilion.

Pedigree Jersey Cattle Produce

As a consumer of Jersey milk and Jersey products, look out for the Jersey Cattle Society logo used by Society members to let you know their Jersey cattle are registered as pedigree.

Click on the button below to browse the Jersey Producers Directory, where you can find out more about our members who use their pedigree cow’s milk to produce high quality Jersey products like butter, cream, cheese, yoghurt and ice-cream.

The Jersey
Producers Directory

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OPEN DIRECTORY