No dexters yet but I have been working on it.
I have seen a couple more herds and I think I am getting a feel for what makes a good little cow, in my opinion anyway!
The only problem so far is that I have seen the ones I want but I don't think they are for sale ( I am working on that as well) and the ones that are for sale are nice cows but not quite what I want as foundation stock.
I know I am being picky but now I have seen what I REALLY want it is going to take a while to find something to measure up to it isn't it!
Also if I do get the chance to buy something really nice I can't see me allowing any of its offspring to be eaten unless or should I say until we muck up with our breeding programme. So I think we will have be content with buying our dexter beef for a long time yet!
Stephanie :D
Starting out - Diverse views!!!
Stephanie Powell
Duffryn Dexters 32824
Abergavenny
https://www.facebook.com/Duffryn-Dexter ... 609196773/
Duffryn Dexters 32824
Abergavenny
https://www.facebook.com/Duffryn-Dexter ... 609196773/
I also find that the clearest description for Dexters is either a carrier or a non-carrier. Once that has been established, you can then look at the average height of the family line.
If you wanted to buy a carrier bull from a particular bloodline, I would ask to see all the non-carrier relatives of that bull. That would be the only way to make an accurate estimate on his height genetics. Only the non-carriers show the true height of a family line. The carriers have their height camoflaged by the chondro gene.
You can always steer and eat the bull calves you know Saffy. :D One can only keep just so many.
We have only had one case of mastitis in our herd and that was in an older cow that had twins. She also had a uterine infection (once again, the twin placentas being the probable cause) and the infected quarter had a partial teat due to injury from many years before. It leaked constantly when full, so I suspect that bacteria had gained injury that way.
In NZ the soil is widely known to be selenium deficient. So much so, that many drenches can be bought in a selenium included form. Copper is another mineral that some farms are deficient in. I feel that soil testing and remedial fertilising is a good start in solving mineral deficiency problems. However, in high rainfall areas (of which England must surely qualify), keeping these mineral from leaching out, must be a big headache.
There are many farms in NZ which inject their animals 2 or 3 times per year with minerals which are tested to be too low in their soils to be sufficient to keep their stock in good health. It is the only way that they can prevent large stock losses.
Worms aren't really a problem in the Dexters for us. I drench the calves at weaning and then the only adults that are drenched are the ones that look under the weather in any way. I've had a couple of animals which have started coughing at odd times, so I've drenched them against possible lungworm, but apart from lice on one or two animals, we really don't have too many worries. Then again, our animals are outdoors all year round, so there is less chance of contact spread parasites like lice going through our whole herd. Its usually only 1 or 2 animals and their offspring which are affected.
In the South Island, a number of worm varieties don't exist because of the snow and frosty conditions over the Winter months. However, it has been noted that with global warming's higher temperatures, some types of previously unexpected worms, have started being picked up in FEC samples further South than before.
If you wanted to buy a carrier bull from a particular bloodline, I would ask to see all the non-carrier relatives of that bull. That would be the only way to make an accurate estimate on his height genetics. Only the non-carriers show the true height of a family line. The carriers have their height camoflaged by the chondro gene.
You can always steer and eat the bull calves you know Saffy. :D One can only keep just so many.
We have only had one case of mastitis in our herd and that was in an older cow that had twins. She also had a uterine infection (once again, the twin placentas being the probable cause) and the infected quarter had a partial teat due to injury from many years before. It leaked constantly when full, so I suspect that bacteria had gained injury that way.
In NZ the soil is widely known to be selenium deficient. So much so, that many drenches can be bought in a selenium included form. Copper is another mineral that some farms are deficient in. I feel that soil testing and remedial fertilising is a good start in solving mineral deficiency problems. However, in high rainfall areas (of which England must surely qualify), keeping these mineral from leaching out, must be a big headache.
There are many farms in NZ which inject their animals 2 or 3 times per year with minerals which are tested to be too low in their soils to be sufficient to keep their stock in good health. It is the only way that they can prevent large stock losses.
Worms aren't really a problem in the Dexters for us. I drench the calves at weaning and then the only adults that are drenched are the ones that look under the weather in any way. I've had a couple of animals which have started coughing at odd times, so I've drenched them against possible lungworm, but apart from lice on one or two animals, we really don't have too many worries. Then again, our animals are outdoors all year round, so there is less chance of contact spread parasites like lice going through our whole herd. Its usually only 1 or 2 animals and their offspring which are affected.
In the South Island, a number of worm varieties don't exist because of the snow and frosty conditions over the Winter months. However, it has been noted that with global warming's higher temperatures, some types of previously unexpected worms, have started being picked up in FEC samples further South than before.
Inger
NZ
NZ