Jersey is world famous for its dairy industry, with dairy cows among its best known exports.

But the Jersey cow is in crisis on its home territory.

Pedigree

Jersey Milk is made from the famous breed of Jersey cows; one of the purest breeds in the world. There are 3,500 cattle on the island whose gene pool has been protected by a 200 year ban on cattle imports to the island.

But the fall in the price of milk, as a result of over-production, has seen producers struggling.

Crisis

Jersey milk, which sells the milk both at home and abroad, is a co-operative made out of 37 registered farmers; that's dropped from 1,000 just 50 years ago.

Because of the crisis the business is having to overhaul its operations in an attempt to return to profitability.

Many workers have been laid off because of soaring costs.

"It's very sad," says Dave Romeril, a driver with Jersey Milk.

"There are a lot of good lads who are going to lose their jobs."

"Cuts have got to be made to keep the industry alive in Jersey," says Paul Davies, quality manager with the co-operative.

"The morale has gone very low because people don't know who's staying and who's going."

End to exports

The UK used to be the biggest market for Jersey milk but Jersey has been unable to compete with cheap imports.

As a result the dairy has made the decision to pull out of the export market completely.

Many farmers are having to diversify or are pulling out of farming all together.

Chris Taylor is a former dairy farmer; he's now concentrating on producing hay and renting out his buildings.

"The stress became too great because as the milk price kept dropping, you had to do more work yourself because you couldn't afford to hire in help."

The future

Now farmers are calling on the government for more help and have come up with a new strategy.

Andrew Le Gallais of the Jersey Milk Marketing Board: "We've got to focus on returning to profitability.

"We have to encourage the dairy to improve the marketing strategy, work on developing a closer and more dynamic relationship with the government and encourage producers to look at adding value to the product.

"We also need to improve the quality and become more cost effective in the way we manage our farms.

"A difficult job, but one that we need to focus on."

The future, according to Kevin Keen, Managing Director at Jersey Milk is to focus on higher value products.

And whilst the industry might be in crisis, it can rest assured in the knowledge that Jersey islanders are fully behind their farmers and their milk.

As Richard Le Boutillier a Dairy Farmer says: "The last few years have been a huge struggle, but we're very lucky in that locals are very proud of our product and that's a great help."