Royal Golden Guernsey Goat title will apply around world

The new title announced today, the Royal Golden Guernsey Goat, will apply around the world.

Keith Opie, president of the Golden Guernsey Goat Breed Society, who will be present at the ceremony with the King and Queen on Tuesday, said this was an incredible honour, and especially significant as the breed is still classed as ‘at risk’ by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

‘It reached a low point in the 1990s, but encouragingly it has since been gaining in popularity,’ he said.

‘It is a unique breed, known to have been native to Guernsey for some 200 years, and is ideal for smallholdings.

‘These goats are gentle, smaller and more fine-boned than many British breeds, and produce delicious milk.’

The breed was on the survival trust’s watchlist again this year. In 2007, it was listed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation as ‘endangered-maintained’. Only 1,381 Golden Guernseys were reported when figures were collected by a reputable organisation five years ago.

Royal titles are granted sparingly, and only on the advice of the Cabinet Office, with strict standards applied.

Lt-Governor Richard Cripwell said it was a tremendous honour that would stay with Guernsey for future generations.

‘The recognition being granted to our special and rare breed, the Golden Guernsey, is a wonderful and fitting way to mark the significance of His Majesty’s first visit to the island as King – an island whose relationship with the Crown is at its core constitutionally as well as historically,’ he said.

The Golden Guernsey Goat is a dairy breed distinguished by its golden skin and hair, which range in hue from pale blond to deep bronze, and by its pleasant temperament.

Christopher Price, chief executive of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, of which King Charles III is patron, said it was delighted that His Majesty was conferring the special title on the island’s iconic native breed.

‘It is a wonderful recognition of the Golden Guernsey’s cultural and historical significance as well as of these goats’ value to biodiversity, to the environment and to sustainable food production,’ he said.

‘Golden Guernseys are really efficient milk producers, and the milk is great for making yoghurt or cheese.

‘The breed also excels in conservation grazing, which supports biodiversity. Being choosy in what they eat, their grazing can provide very specific environmental benefits. We are extremely grateful to His Majesty for his continued and greatly valued support for British rare native livestock and equine breeds.’