Assessment of Duffryn Herd

[Saffy]

The assessor came today to assess any cows in the herd that were eligible for assessment and had not been done before. He also re assessed an oldie for me.

Today there were only 3 animals to do:

Dingestow Moticil is 5 years old and quite a small cow but she was just big enough, she calved back in June so we were waiting to wean her heifer calf to put her in with the bull. Motocil was GP80.

Duffryn Hint of Spice, also 5 years old, nearer the top end size wise, she calved in December. Spice was Ex90.

Woodmagic Merlin 6th already Ex90 was the oldie to be re done, I thought just for fun as she is 20 years old on 15th June this year but she does look amazing for her age. She had calved on 1st January. Merlin BIG surprise went up to Ex 92...wahay she is a fabulous old girl and is rearing her calf well!

Stephanie

[Jac]

Nice to hear some good news for a change. Well done.

[Mark Bowles]

Well done Stephanie, EX twice over, very good.

[Saffy]

Thanks Jac and Mark,

Here is a pic of Merlin 6th taken a couple of weeks before she calved.

Stephanie

[Lolivaise]

Fantastic news and Merlin looks fab for her age, I think we would all love to have a cow like that one day.

I’m interested to know what you do with the results of your linear scoring, does it tend to pick up areas in the herd to work on (ie choose another bull to improve udders or feet) or do you use it more to pick out your best cows to keep young stock from?

[Saffy]

Thank you Roxane.

Interesting question. The short answer is yes it would tend to pick out areas that an owner may decide to work on.

However we all have different reasons for keeping our Dexters!

I am particularly fussy, after a lifetime in farming, being brought up to stock judge, it pleases my eye to have cattle with good conformation. This isn't important to everyone....but there are usually good reasons that some things have become known as conformation faults. Also if an animal has fabulous conformation she is much more likely to live to a healthy old age.

If you could wave a magic wand and have a perfect herd of perfectly conformed cattle, you would save money and time on foot trimming, and there would be less lameness. You would have less trouble getting calves to suckle and less mastitis. They would all thrive well as they would have perfect mouths and teeth and plenty of spring of rib etc to eat well.... Assessment shows you all this.

Mark can probably give you a fuller answer.

Stephanie

P.S. Just to add to this, I would use linear to pick my "bull mothers" from the highest scoring cows. but I also like bull mothers to milk particularly well, have good temperaments and be long lived...

[Mark Bowles]

Roxane,
when completed each animal has a list of traits and a score next to it so you can compare between your animals, and of course someone elses if you wish, and from this you can determine the "faults" you wish to improve. You can then look for a bull that has strength on the traits you wish to improve on your cows, a linear bull would give you this information as an indication before you even see the bull.
Linear also builds up a picture of an animals background, it takes a number of years to do. This spring, touch wood, I will have a calf born with 8 different EX animals in its pedigree, that has to be an indication of a decent breeding animal, sods law it will be a short bull calf!!

[Lolivaise]

Thanks for your reply Mark, clears it up a bit! Are the scores for the list of traits publicly listed somewhere? Or do we have to ask owners individually? I can see this being a benefit when looking for AI bulls to improve certain traits.

[Mark Bowles]

Individual scores are the property of the member who has paid for the assessment. AI bulls have, since linear started, had to be scored to be advertised, of course all the old deceased bulls will not have scores so the best you can do is go on hearsay of their confirmation etc. Linear removes the "hearsay" comments on dead animals, if they are scored it paints a picture of what an animal looked like...by numbers.

[Saffy]

Here are my most recent scorings if they are of interest to you Roxanne, or anyone else.

The two cows with excellent scores are obviously stunning cows, the one who made GP80 scored as expected on the day. If I had paid extra and scored her back in the autumn she would have made an extra few points as she had milked right off her back by assessment day and was looking at her worst but....that is life...

Duffryn Hint Of Spice is 5 years old and was assessed about 2 months after having her 3rd calf, she may well gain a few more points in a few years time, if she wears as well as I think she will.

Dingestow Motacil was totally stale and the calf weaned after the assessment. She would probably gain a few points if seen again in better condition.

Woodmagic Merlin 6th is nearly 20, I was most pleased that she gained a couple of extra points last week but she did look well.

I think if you click on the photographs they will be clear enough to read if not PM and I will email them to anyone interested.

Stephanie