Seven Jersey heifers to be gifted to King

The heifers were chosen to represent a cross-section of breeding

Seven Jersey heifers will be gifted to King Charles III during his visit to the island on Monday.

The animals will be presented by the Jersey Milk Marketing Board (JMMB) and the Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society.

As the Jersey herd at Windsor is complete, the King has asked that the cattle be given to Home Farm, part of the Highgrove Estate in Gloucestershire run by Duchy of Cornwall tenant farmer, Henry Gay.

Mr Gay recently visited Jersey to choose the heifers that will live alongside his organic herd of Ayrshire cows.

Henry Gay, a Duchy of Cornwall tenant farmer, will care for the heifers carefully selected from the island's herds, one of which belongs to Charlie Le Boutillier

The heifers were originally due to be presented in 2022 to the late Queen to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee.

Following the King's accession to the throne, arrangements were made to ship them to Windsor in December.

However, that month one of the leading milking herds in Jersey suffered a significant loss when 100 of its herd died in a suspected botulism outbreak.

The King gifted back the seven heifers to assist the restocking programme and Andrew Le Gallais, who retired as JMMB chairman in 2022 but has continued to work closely with the Crown Estate, said the Le Boutillier herd was now "fully restocked".

"We are delighted we’re now able to honour the gift intended for His Majesty [and] look forward to working with Henry and his father Colston to help them build the herd of Jersey cows,” he added.