Original
Article About Dexters
"Dexter"
by Valerie Porter
from Practical Rare Breeds: A Modern Approach
to the Breeding and Farming of Minority Livestock, published by Pelham
Books, London, 1987, pages 95-98
Valerie Porter has written a number of books
about cattle, rare breeds and smallholding, including "Cattle: A Handbook to
Breeds of the World" (1991). She also writes fiction, co-authors memoirs,
and is a technical author specialising in agricultural software manuals. At
one stage, she was farm secretary for several dairy enterprises, and has
raised cows, calves, ducks and dogs herself. This book was written in
response to an increased interest, especially in the UK, in the farming of
rare or minority breed livestock. It contains a very informative chapter on
breed conservation before looking at issues about raising and marketing rare
livestock. There then follow chapters on different kinds of livestock.
Chapter 8 is on cattle, and includes this extract on Dexters.
Page 95:
DEXTER
Black, red or dun. Horned. Short legs. Smallest British breed. Dual
purpose. RBST rating: below numerical guidelines.
The Dexter's is a success story. Partly because of a very active breed
society, its numbers have increased substantially in recent years and some
three hundred females are registered annually. There is a significant
grading-up population. It has found its niche.
Like the Kerry, the Dexter is descended from the old wild Irish mountain
cattle. It comes from south-west Ireland and seems to be similar in type to
domestic cattle of Iron Age Britain and early Christian Ireland. In the late
18th and early 19th centuries it seems to have been selectively bred for
small size by a Mr Dexter on Lord Hawarden's estate in Co. Kerry, and until
the end of the last century it was known as the "Dexter-Kerry". Even then it
was considered valuable for beef and for milk production. It was described
as:
"smaller and more compact than the Kerry, shorter in the leg, and intoed
Page 96:
before and behind. While black is the usual colour, red is also recognized,
with, in either case, a little white. When of a red colour the appearance of
the animal has been aptly compared to that of a grand Shorthorn viewed
through the wrong end of a telescope. The Kerry and the Dexter are readily
distinguishable. The Kerry has a gay, light, deer-like head and horn, light
limbs and thin skin. The Dexter has coarser limbs, a square body, flat back,
thick shoulder, short neck, and head and horn set on low." [Porter does not
provide the source of this quote.]
A Major Barton founded a herd of Dexter-Shorthorns in 1860 in Straffan,
Ireland, and they were said to breed true to
type and to blend permanently the prominent characteristics of the two
breeds.
The smallness of the Dexter is emphasized by the shortness of the cannon
bone (between knee and fetlock). They have been kept as park curiosities but
in fact they are a very hardy breed with the potential to perform well under
professional management and they have the advantage of high stocking rates
(they do not even poach clay).
Breeding needs to be carefully planned. In the past too many fanciers have
gone for out-of-proportion types standing at about 90cm (36in) with heads
more appropriate to a 100cm (40in) adult. A good size to aim for is 100cm
(40in) but they can stand as high as 112cm (44in) at the shoulder. A
Page 97:
maximum desirable weight for cows is 360kg (800lb) liveweight, the average
being about 300kg (660lb), but a mature bull or steer can reach more than
460kg (9cwt) at three years old. For early maturing beef the best weight
would be 305-330kg (6-6.5cwt), and on an intensive feeding system a
satisfactory killing-out size can be attained at twelve months old. The
joints are small, economical and of excellent quality and are ideal for the
freezer. An interesting outlet is selling surplus stock to hotels and
guest-houses in tourist areas; they can then offer their guests "homegrown"
milk and cheese with beef from the bull calves.
Milk production can be at commercial levels under good management, as has
been proved with Jane Paynter's Knotting herd at Yielden, Bedfordshire. This
is a large, brucellosis-free, recorded dairy herd and the average herd yield
is 2,855kg (6,2941b) at 4.09% butterfat and 3.41% protein. Jane Paynter aims
for 305-day lactations and her best cows peak at about five gallons a day.
Other recorded figures include a cow in her twelfth lactation yielding
3,125kg (6,8891b) at 4.60% butterfat over 305 days; another gave 3,550kg
(7,8261b) at 4.17% in her sixth lactation and beat that with 4,229kg
(9,3231b) at 4.04% in her seventh. Averages for the breed are butterfat over
4% (some exceed 5%) and yields of six or seven hundred gallons on grass, hay
and an economical supplementary ration. The MMB-recorded herds averaged 477
gallons (2,168 litres) in 1983/4. A really good house-cow could yield seven
or eight hundred gallons, giving a steady three or four gallons a day for
the first five months of the lactation.
At the beginning of this century the Dexter was taking prizes in London
dairy show classes and in the 1907 Smithfield Show beef classes. But in the
1940s it was said that "milking presents a real problem for they often have
pendulous udders so close to the ground that it is difficult to get a bucket
under them."
Breeding problems have been experienced with "bulldog" calves. The factor
which dwarfs the typical Dexter by shortening the bones seems to be
controlled by a partially dominant gene. Recent research (The Ark,
June 1986) suggests that a series of alleles at one locus is responsible for
a gradation in phenotypes in a Dexter: a longer-legged type which is in
effect virtually a Kerry, an intermediate medium-legged type, and the very
short-legged dwarf. A fourth type, which is non-viable, is the "bulldog" -
an abnormally dwarfed calf with a large head which is usually aborted
between the fifth and ninth months of the pregnancy.
The same problem can also occur in other breeds, for example the Hereford
and Angus, but it is probably of a different kind from a recessive gene.
Page 98:
Bulldogs tend to result from a mating between two short-legged
out-of-proportion parents and breeders are well advised to go for big, rangy
bulls which can sire some very pretty heifers. A short, dumpy bull gives
short, quick-maturing heifers that look like cows by the time they are
two-year-olds, but the rangier sire's heifers will not look like cows until
their second or third calf and will then continue to be productive until
they are at least eight years old.
There was a time when extreme dwarfism was favoured in the show-ring, but
fortunately for the breed that trend is no longer so extreme. More than a
hundred years ago, in The Times of 16 September 1850, there was an
advertisement offering a small bull and cow from the African grain coast,
three years old and measuring 30in at the shoulder. The advertisement said:
"They have nothing of the buffalo about them, but are most like the small
Guernsey breed." What were they? What happened to them? Who knows? The
bulldog defect is still seen in Africa.
It is not advisable to steam up a Dexter cow because if she is too fat at
calving she may need a Caesarean. On the other hand, many smallholders (and
the Dexter is often a smallholder's cow) underfeed their animals, making the
common mistake of assuming that a breed which is able to survive on poor
quality grazing will actually thrive on it. Most of the so-called thrifty
breeds can survive in such conditions but will do very much better on more
food. Because of their size, of course, Dexters do eat less than other
breeds, and they are also very adaptable to different grazing conditions and
climates. They can usefully be tether-grazed.
Dexters are now being exported to Canada to infuse new blood into existing
herds over there and enquiries are being received from other overseas
sources. The park pet and smallholder's milch cow is now being taken
seriously and bred more carefully to avoid show-type extremes and the lethal
consequences. The future of the breed is very promising.
Back to List of “Original Articles
About Dexters”
|
