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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:52 pm
by Sylvia
I've been checking my records and I don't know why I didn't realise this before but I have a good looking 'short' heifer from a mum and dad both of whom are definitely non short. This heifer has recently had a bull calf who looks very like his mum, his dad is non short. I suppose I should get mother and child tested. If she is a non carrier then she is indistinguishable from my other shorts who are carriers. If she is a carrier then it blows a hole in the 2 x non shorts is a safe mating.
Only fly in the ointment is that she is not registerable because her mother is not registered, so her son certainly wouldn't be registerable. So if by accident I have found just the animals to concentrate on it looks like I'll be running an unregistered herd eventually.
Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:00 pm
by Sylvia
Here is a pic of heifer mentioned when she was heavy in calf. When it stops raining I'll take a photo of her calf so you can judge for yourselves. 
Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:21 pm
by Rob R
Looking forward to the results of the test- she definitely looks like a shortie! I take it there's no way she could have been caught by a short bull/rig steer?
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:30 am
by wagra dexters
If she tests carrier then one of her parents must have been a carrier also. Appearances are not a certain indication. Some of our cows are as short looking as this one, and they are tested non-carrier.
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 8:23 am
by Woodmagic
I am very much afraid your animal is a carrier. Take a look at the last two pics. of Woodmagic put on the other string, their conformation is not the same, you cannot produce an identikit of the carrier - the body is lighter. If you wanted to take it further, I think you should include a parentage test. Dexters have devious methods of confusing things. Many years ago, I went out one morning to find a heifer had just produced a white-faced calf. But for the white face, I would have jumped to the conclusion that walkabouts by a ‘tethered’ bull, the dates would conveniently coincided, was responsible. The mystery was solved some months later, when a spate of oddly marked calves appeared around the district, it transpired a Friesian x Hereford ‘steer’ had been having a whirl of a time, before he was eventually detected.
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 10:56 am
by Sylvia
Yes I very much fear my previous conclusions are unproveable. I mistook her birth date and thought she was sired by my poor departed Marmite (who was non short and the only candidate at that time) but in fact her mother must have been bought in pregnant. Those breeders were not the most reliable (they sold me a very underage pregnant heifer too) and I have no faith in what they told me. So, excitement over and back to square one, I think. So sorry about the mistake.
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:38 pm
by Duncan MacIntyre
Sadly Sylvia is not the first to have hopes of the short non carrier raised and then dashed, I think testing is really a good idea for those who wish to avoid the bulldog gene altogether, or for those who wish to breed a known carrier with a "short looking long" or a "long looking short" as Morna Arkle would have described them.
When I decided to go bulldog free I tested all those I wanted to use for breeding, unless both the parents had already been tested.
If I can get it on I will put up a pic of Burnside Candytuft, tested non carrier, fourth generation to bear the Burnside prefix, compare the body as Beryl says. Candtuft is only 37 inches.
Duncan
Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:19 am
by Woodmagic
Excellent picture of a beautiful cow Duncan, surely nobody would want them smaller than that. My little lot are gradually turning a delicate shade of brown with all the mud.
Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:22 am
by Inger
The weather must be making a real mess of your paddocks Woodmagic. So much for Summer!