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Original
Article About Dexters
"Kerry and
Dexter Cattle" (cont'd)
by Professor James Wilson
from Volume One "Cattle" of the six volume
Live Stock of the Farm, 1918
Page 108:
are born in nearly every black breed. They were all crossed with red cattle
at one time or another, and because of the way in which it is inherited, the
red colour is very difficult to eliminate.
The Dexter, on the other hand, is stouter and rounder in the body, and
heavier at the shoulder, with exceptionally short legs, which frequently
turn inwards on the toes when the animal is walking. She is thicker and
shorter in the neck, and has a beautifully-shaped, short, broad head, with a
very pleasing countenance. The horns are thicker than the Kerry’s, spreading
outwards and upwards, and usually turning backwards at the points. She may
be either black or red. Her udder is frequently very well shaped, reaching
far forward.
Length of bone is the essential difference between the Kerry and the Dexter,
and this character determines the general structure of each. The short bones
of the Dexter give it short legs, a short stout body, and a short head with
shorter and thicker horns. The Dexter carries no more muscle than the Kerry,
but what it does carry is shorter and bulkier, and so the Dexter is rounder
and of what is called the “beef” type, while the Kerry is of what is called
the “dairy” type. Neither breed carries a greater total quantity of beef,
but the roasts, the rumps, and the rounds of the Dexter are deeper and
fuller, and the proportion of bone to beef is probably less.
In the matter of milk both breeds are about equal. The average is between
500 and 600 gal.; but in both breeds there are cows giving from 4 to 5 gal.
a day at the flush; which means a lactation yield of from 800 to 1000 gal.
The Kerry and the Dexter, being only 6 or 7 cwt. when in full milk, are
splendid examples of the fact, now beginning to be realized, that milk yield
does not depend upon size so much as upon the constitutional ability of the
cow to turn a larger or smaller quantity of foodstuffs into milk. The milk
of the Kerry contains, on the average, about 4 per cent of butter fat; that
of the Dexter slightly more. It is believed that there are a number of
Dexter cows having milk of a very high quality, approximating to that of the
Jersey.
The Dexter is possessed of the remarkable quality that its shortness of
limb, and therefore its roundness of body and depth of flesh, are handed on
to its progeny by the Kerry and all other breeds, and in consequence, it is
in strong demand for mating with Shorthorns, Aberdeen-Angus, and Herefords
for the production of small-sized bullocks and heifers to be fattened for
exhibition purposes. In Mendelian language, the short limb of the Dexter is
dominant to the longer limbs of other cattle. But
Dexter Bull, "Jack Robin" and Dexter Cow, "La Mancha Hard to Find"
Plates between pages 108 and 109
Page 109:
like all dominant characters, this short limb is not bred pure without care
and time; and, just as Aberdeen-Angus cattle may throw red calves and still
be black, so Dexters may throw long-legged calves and still be Dexters.
Aberdeen-Angus breeders have now gone a long way towards eliminating the red
colour from their breed, but Dexter breeders have gone only a
comparatively short way towards eliminating the long legs from theirs.
Unfortunately, Dexter breeders are hampered by the fact that the Dexter
sometimes throws malformed and useless calves when mated with its own kind,
but has normal calves when mated with other breeds, and rather than take the
risk of these malformations, some breeders have their Dexters mated with
Kerrys; in which case the long-legged calves then produced are transferred
to the Kerry stock, while the short-legged ones remain among the Dexters.
Thus, in view of the possible loss in mating Dexter with Dexter, and its
avoidance in mating Dexter with Kerry, the Kerry breed is a necessity to the
poorer Dexter breeders till the tendency to produce misshapen calves is bred
out of the Dexter. That this can be done is scarcely open to doubt, for the
manner of their occurrence shows that the malformations are a phenomenon
which might be attacked from the Mendelian standpoint. Animals of either sex
which breed no malformations, no matter how mated, should become
starting-points for the production of descendants in the possession of
capacities like their own.
In comparatively recent times a new kind of Dexter has been produced.
The original Dexter, as we saw, was the result of crossing the Kerry with an
animal of North Devon type. The new Dexter is the result of crossing the
Dexter with the Shorthorn. About fifty years ago a red Dexter cow was
brought to Straffan House in County Kildare. This cow, and such of her
female descendants as retained the short legs and small size of the Dexter,
were mated with Shorthorns for five or six generations. After that time some
of the short-legged bull calves were retained and the cows mated with their
own kind. The progeny of these are usually Dexters, but an occasional calf
with the longer legs and general appearance of the Shorthorn is born, and
such will continue to be born till the power of producing the long limbs is
eliminated from the Dexter-Shorthorn, as the breed is now called.
The Dexter came into the knowledge of the outside world later than the
Kerry. Dexter cattle must have been coming to the east of Ireland since the
eighteenth century, but it was not till 1876 that the Royal Dublin Society
provided a separate class for
On to Pages 110-111
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