Dexter Cattle For Sale Discussion Board

Many congratulations go to Di Smith after having some of her herd classified today. She put forward 5 females that classified VG86,VG88,EX90,EX91 and EX92. Di is now the only person to have 3 homebred females classified as excellent. I believe she now understands the merits of the scheme and she will be submitting more cows as they calve into next year.
well done Di.

Well Done Di, I have not seen your cattle for far too many years but I always considered your herd to be "Excellent"!

Any of these ladies related to the stunning Jenny or "Peach"?

Best Wishes

Lisa

Yes, great news indeed.

Absolutely WONDERFUL news!!! Well done girlie!!!

Thankyou to all for your kind comments.
Mark, you really pushed me into doing this! You know I have reservations, not so much about cows but about bulls being scored.
A bulls job is to to throw good offspring and we may get a very high scoring bull who would probably be used a lot or be sold at a high price but throws poor calves.
I wish there was some way we could get round to looking at bull progeny and maybe bull mothers as they are so important.
Maybe we should be waiting till bulls are 3 years old and have progeny on the ground? You would know they are fertile then as well.
I also think bull mothers should come into the equation too.
I know of one bull on DCS AI whose dam had the most awful udder, huge bottle teats and bad legs and feet. He was a good looking youngster and the person who bought him at a sale had no access to his dam to inspect her so it wasn't their fault!

Lisa, I will give you the names so you can look them up. All go back to Polly, Pollydoodle and/or Jenny.
Tamarisk, my young lady, VG86,
Kylie VG88,
Amber EX90,
Lovely old Sunbeam, who goes back to my very first cow, EX 91 and
Meadowsweet, double Doodlepip, EX 92.

I see you are "pushing" me into doing more Mark!
Di

Congratulations. Great results.
In Au, for bulls to move into the Ex category they must first have 5 daughters classifying as VG85 or better.

Now come on Di, we all know no one pushes you into anything!!!
Well done again.

Shall we say you can be very persuasive Mark! Wouldn't have done it without your encouragement. Thanks anyway.
Di

On the DCS website there is a link for the Linear classificatiion outlines. When you flip through the pages only illustrations for cows are there. Could someone give me the link for bulls?

Thanks
Judy

JamsHundred wrote:On the DCS website there is a link for the Linear classificatiion outlines. When you flip through the pages only illustrations for cows are there. Could someone give me the link for bulls?

Thanks
Judy

There is a description for bulls on page number 14 but no pictures.

Thanks much Jac. I saw that and thought the bull photos were missing. Drat. I think new breeders have more confusiin and angst as to a decision on a bull prospect than a cow. i still do.

Judy

I knew you had good cows. 3 excellent cows is fantastic. Congratulations.

About the bulls: I think you are right: progeny is more important than the bull himself. But I've never seen good progeny from a poor bull. Good show results do the same thing as good lineair scores.

IMO bulls never should be overused. It's not good for the population.

Sometimes I wished I had more information about AI bulls. For example lineair scores of the mother and siblings.
Linieair scores of progeny is only worthfull if many are scored, good and poor! So DCS should stimulate to score all animals instead only the best.

PorcPrunus NL wrote:
IMO bulls never should be overused. It's not good for the population.

Sometimes I wished I had more information about AI bulls. For example lineair scores of the mother and siblings.
Linieair scores of progeny is only worthfull if many are scored, good and poor! So DCS should stimulate to score all animals instead only the best.

I would just like to say how much I agree with this.

Our UK linear scheme is totally open to members who wish any of their stock to be scored, its their choice, most recognise a good animal and therefore put them forward. The next stage on is to classify whole herds and every animal but I doubt many members will go for that so we are where we are. I personally have females with up to 9 animals on their green pedigrees that are classified VG or EX, next year when I breed my younger bull on some young females nearly every animal on the green pedigree will be classified, surely that has to mean something to someone and help me get a sale.

Mark Bowles wrote:Our UK linear scheme is totally open to members who wish any of their stock to be scored, its their choice, most recognise a good animal and therefore put them forward. The next stage on is to classify whole herds and every animal but I doubt many members will go for that so we are where we are. I personally have females with up to 9 animals on their green pedigrees that are classified VG or EX, next year when I breed my younger bull on some young females nearly every animal on the green pedigree will be classified, surely that has to mean something to someone and help me get a sale.

Looking at the Holstein (and I profess my ignorance as I have never kept the breed) did they not increase milk production genetically to such an extent that their bodies were breaking down under the strain of it all so they had to select for conformation that would support the high performance?

Yes, the Dexter won't break down but is the cart being put before the horse? If the Dexter is to hold its own in the direction that the breed is heading at present we need to find an even better way of communicating what useful job the Dexter does that other breeds do not. Where is the golden nugget? Can genetics help us? Is there any other technology that can be employed? I know in my particular circumstances why I keep them but what is going to make other people want the breed (in general) and so increase the price for everyone.

No, I'm not suggesting for a minute that you abandon the good work if you believe that it will help people to obtain a better price for their animals but I think more is required. It is a good thing that people work towards improving their herds. I see the real value of this scheme for those coming after by not having to work exclusively on paper pedigrees (which is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard) unfortunately if not all the offspring are scored this in itself is a limiting factor as is the non publication of the score breakdown. I see the disadvantages of this in people all using the same bulls - 'champion show bull' syndrome.