h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You know, I always thought Friesian cows didn't have horns!

They certainly do - but are normally dehorned in their youth, to reduce the risk of injury, to the stockman and to other cows. There are naturally polled (hornless) breeds, such as the Red Poll (? originally from Suffolk IIRC) and the black breeds of Norse ancestry.
Oddly enough, the original colour for a Freisian cow is red and white rather than the modern Black & White (or White & Black in the case of the Holstein Freisian). Odd small groups of islands should produce so many premier breeds of dairy animal (Jersey, Guernsey, Friesian, Freis Melkschaap)

That explains a lot. Only, Friesians are NOT from a small island, but from an obscure country called Holland.

Holland is not a country. It is one of the provinces (originally 7?) that make up a country called the Netherlands. AFAIK the Friesian cow etc. all originate from the Wadden or Friesian islands, if my contacts in Alkmaar and Utrecht are trustworthy.

The Netherlands are usually called Holland. And I think the cows come from mainland Friesland.

Sorry - the emoticon intended to reveal that the Netherlands/Holland stuff was a joke got lost. Actually, if you take a look at the guide entry, you'll see that this is a sore point with some (a bit like the England/Brtiain/UK business). You may be right about the mainland origin for the breed - but I have seen assertions from locally-based sources that (Spelling warning -) Schiermonnikooge is the original source of the cattle.

Shiermonnikoog, yeah, could be, but it's not really big, so the possibilities for selective breeding would be limited.

sorry, Schiermonnikoog.

Well, once they had shown some potential, the other islands & adjacent mainland would soon pick up on them - not sure when / where the colour change occurred. Bit like Shetland cattle, I suppose, when the black/white of the British Freisian seems to have almost driven out the original colours. One useful site cropped up when I was searching for info on Freisian hens.

I'll take your word for it, not really much into cattle!