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"The Dexter in History: Part Two

Irish Cattle"

by Beverley McCulloch and Michael Trotter

A revised version of an article first published in the Dexter Dispatch, Bulletin of the NZ Dexter Cattle Society, no. 31, February 2001, pages 18ff

This second instalment in this series is taken from an article on Irish cattle written by James Wilson M.A., Professor of Agriculture, Royal College of Science, Dublin, Ireland, published in 1912. The extract given here comprises a number of historical observations on Irish cattle generally, and Kerry cattle specifically, made by early writers, as well as Wilson’s own comments. Note particularly the reference to “misshapen” calves – and their cause – as well as the even more thought-provoking descriptions of colour and markings.

All of the following is from Irish Cattle by James Wilson (1912):

“Before coming to close quarters with the remnant of the old Irish race as we find them now in Kerry in their last stronghold, let us look at them as they were seen in some other parts of the country before they became extinct in those parts. The Rev. Mr. Sampson, who wrote the Agricultural Survey of Londonderry, published in 1802, observed ‘two varieties of native cows: the one is light in bone, small in size, extremely active, crooked in the ham, with a good eye and sharp nose, and nice thin neck, a crooked horn, frequently turned upward. This strain is generally black, reddish, or brindled, with some white. There is a coarse-boned, ill-shaped breed also; these have swollen bellies, heavy head, a dewlap very pendent, a bull-like aspect.’
 

In Tyrone, Mr. M’Evoy (1802) says: ‘There is here little variation in the breed of black cattle, and especially among the mountainous parts of the country. They are of various colours and shapes, but generally small, as heavy cattle could not subsist upon the scanty fare of our mountains, being principally young heath or heder, a common name for heath with the natives, and a coarse kind of carex grass…. Though our milch cows are far from being well shaped, they are in general good milkers, to secure which the people take infinite pains. If a person happens on a bad milker, he sells her again as soon as possible, so continues buying and selling till he finds one to answer.’ Mr. Anderson of Shelton, in Wicklow, in a letter to Youatt (1834), describes the old Irish cattle there as a low, broad, hardy breed, with thick heads and necks, and a thick hide. Wakefield, in his account of Ireland (1812), describes the old Irish breed thus: ‘I have seen some which were pointed out to me as the remains of the ancient breed; they were narrow in the loins and thin in the quarters; they had short legs, large bellies, and white faces; their horns, which turned backwards, were remarkably wide set; they had large dewlaps; but this breed is now is almost extinct’.

Youatt himself (1834) says of the aboriginal breed: ‘They are found in the mountains and rude parts of the country, in almost every district. They are small, light, active, and wild. The head is small, although there are exceptions to this in various parts, and so numerous indeed are these exceptions, that some describe the native Irish cattle as having heavy thick heads and necks; the horns are short compared with the other breed … all of them fine, some of them rather upright, and frequently, after projecting forward, then turning backward. Although somewhat deficient in the hind-quarters, they are high-boned, and wide over the hips, yet the bone generally is not heavy. The hair is coarse and long; in some places they are black, in others brindled; and in others black or brindled, with white faces. Some are finer in the bone, and finer in the neck, with a good eye, and sharp muzzle, and great activity.’
 

Thus, before they became extinct excepting in Kerry and its borders, the original black cattle of Ireland were of several colours – black, red, brindle, or one of these colours with white patches – and of two distinct types: one light-limbed and active; the other stouter and thicker, with a large head and short legs.
 

But in Kerry the two types – one the Kerry, and the other the Dexter – are alive to this day, living in the same district and even in the same fields, breeding together, sometimes each type with its own, but more often the one with the other, yet producing young that always belong on either, never any that seem crosses or halfbreds. Most of the Kerry farmers prefer to mate either the Kerry with the Kerry, or the Kerry with the Dexter, for when two Dexters are mated they sometimes throw misshapen calves. The earliest reference to a Kerry as a ‘Kerry’ is by Arthur Young in 1780. ‘The common stock of the mountains (of Kerry) are young cattle bred by the poor people; their breed is the little mountain or Kerry cow, which upon good land gives a great deal of milk. I have remarked as I travelled through the country much of the Alderney breed in some of them.’
 

Wakefield in 1812 also mentions the Kerry as being a distinct breed found in the mountainous parts of south-west Cork, and he observes that by frequent crossing with the Longhorn a small breed of nearly the same character was produced.
 

Then comes Youatt (1834): ‘The cow of Kerry is truly a poor man’s cow, living everywhere hardy, yielding, for her size, abundance of milk of a good quality, and fattening rapidly when required. The slightest inspection will convince the reader of the difference between this breed and both the larger and the smaller long-horned Irish one; were it not for the cloddiness about the shoulder, and the shortness and thickness of the lower part of the neck, and the pied colour, we should almost fancy that we saw the middle-horn North Devon cow.’
 

Last comes Low, who in his Domesticated Animals of the British Isles (1845) says: ‘The Kerry cattle of the mountains are generally black, with a white ridge along the spine. … They have often also a white streak upon the belly, but they are of various colours, as black, brown, and mixed black and white, or black and brown. Their horns are fine, long, and turned upward at the points. Their skins are soft and unctuous, and of a fine orange tone, which is visible about the eyes, the ears, and the muzzle. Their eyes are lively and bright, and, although their size is diminutive, their shape is good. … The peculiar value of the Kerry breed is the adaptability of the females to the purposes of the domestic dairy. In milking properties the Kerry cow, taking size into account, is equal or superior to any in the British Islands.’

After saying ‘This fine little breed has been greatly neglected’, Low goes on: ‘A few honourable exceptions, however, exist to this too general neglect of the mountain dairy breed of Ireland. One attempt had succeeded to such a degree as to form a new breed, which partially exists with the characters communicated to it. It has been termed the Dexter breed. It was formed by the late Mr. Dexter, agent to Maude Lord Hawarden. This gentleman is said to have produced his curious breed by selection from the best of the mountain cattle of the district. He communicated to it a remarkable roundness of form and shortness of legs. The steps, however, by which this improvement was effected, have not been sufficiently recorded, and some doubt may exist whether the original was the pure Kerry, or some other breed proper to the central parts of Ireland now unknown, or whether some foreign blood, as the Dutch, was not mixed with the native race. One character of the Dexter breed is frequently observed in certain cattle of Ireland, namely short legs, and a small space from the knee and hock to the hoofs. … When an individual of a Kerry drove appears remarkably round and short-legged, it is common for the country people to call it a Dexter.’
 

Thus, in Kerry, just as elsewhere, there came to be two breeds of Irish cattle: one light and active, the other short-legged and stout …”

On to Part Three

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