What is a Shetland Cow
“… a smallish animal, black and white in colour standing about 47” to 49” at the shoulder. Level and wide on top with thin, sleek and silky skin, the hocks are clean with thin, hard bone and the lower legs are short on wide, flat feet. The head is medium in size and the horns thin, level and turned forward. The udder is level with fairly large teats well out on the corners.”- Shetland Cattle Herd Book Society.
While the above description states that they are black and white this was not always so; red and white and blue and white, and duns were just some of the other colours seen in the past. Market pressures led to farmers concentrating on black and whites to the exclusion of all others but the genes were still present so much so that several years ago, completely out of the blue two red and white calves were bred in two separate herds in Shetland. There are now a lot of red and white Shetlands to be seen. The dun cattle were mostly found on Foula, the smallest inhabited isle in Shetland. A couple of years ago Ronnie Eunson in Shetland bred a dun calf from black and white parents two years in succession.