Dexters in the Sunday Times

redhill · Post by **redhill** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 1:55 pm

fifitrix, thank-you for your posting, if ever you get a smallholding you have the right attitude to be a succesful Dexter keeper.
Bill and Sue Osborne, Castlemears Dexters, Forest of Dean.

carole · Post by **carole** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 2:05 pm

I wonder who will be the first to get a phone call from the RSPCA because someone actually believed this article and they have had to rescue a dexter from someone's garden.

Rutherford · Post by **Rutherford** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 3:11 pm

Hello Fifitrix, thank you for your contribution, most of the folks who read this column will know that I started off as an ignorant townswoman. I am certainly not likely to dismiss you as stupid. Indeed from your response I suggest if you had access to a few acres you might very well join the rest of us, and make a good job of it, I certainly don’t condemn you. I think your suggestion is a very good one, and hope the Society may take it up.
Beryl (Woodmagic)

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 3:52 pm

Fifitrix - good to hear your thoughts. I'm a big city lad turned farmer! It's not that difficult to keep these small cattle with a few contacts and a bit of research. Visit a local Dexter keeper and they'll almost certainly be pleased to show you all that's involved.

If you haven't tried it, get some beef from a good supplier and give it a go. It varies like any other beef, but it is usually somewhere between excellent and out of this world.

I've seen quite a few articles where I know what actually happened in real life, and they have all been a load of rubbish apart from the ones where I was able to comment and amend details, and the TV and radio are only a little better.

Edited By Broomcroft on 1219071381

Fifitrix · Post by **Fifitrix** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:52 pm

Thanks everyone for your kind welcome. I would love to keep a Dexter. They look amazing but although I have a good sized garden. It is not big enough!

Rutherford · Post by **Rutherford** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:06 pm

A thought struck me if you are interested. There may be a Dexter keeper not too far from you who would be willing to sell you an interest in a steer to be kept by them for your freezer. A few folk do have such an arangement, and it would give you a foot in the door
Beryl (Woodmagic)

Farrant · Post by **Farrant** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:13 pm

The media seem to have gone a little crazy with the Times story, we have had 3 news channels come down and film the cows today. We have made a big effort to correct the misleading information that the Times printed. We have (hopefully) made it clear that Dexters require a lot of grass and care and that they are NOT backgarden animals. We told them that we feed our cows hay, silage nuts etc in the winter and that my father gets up at 5am to check/feed the cows before going to work. I am still a little concerned that they still seem to like this idea of the 'pet' cow, but we have really tried to correct them. Hopefully the pictures of extensive downland with only 9 cows grazing it will make it obvious that cows do need a lot of space and grass. Fingers crossed that the information portrayed will be better than that in the Times. We have hopefully promoted the Dexter breed, but we all need to be very careful to make checks on anyone that we are considering selling our cattle to. DEFRA should also help us a little here, as most people would be unable to get a holding number for a 'garden' and therefore wouldn't be able to move the cows onto their land. The whole thing has got me a little twitchy (media editing seems to be able to change what we have said dramatically) - I just hope that Dexters will be promoted and at no cost to their welfare.

bjreroberts · Post by **bjreroberts** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 9:23 am

Farrant wrote:DEFRA should also help us a little here, as most people would be unable to get a holding number for a 'garden' and therefore wouldn't be able to move the cows onto their land.

Unfortunately not, when you register for a holding number and herd number they have no interest in the land associated with that holding.

It is a flaw in the system, as unless you claim quotas they do not have a clue what land is part of a holding!

I live in a town and my holding is registered to my home address even though no animals go anywhere near it. All the land I use is rented and each time I add land I have a visit from a vet at tax payers expense to add it to the Sole Occupancy Authority. It seems ludicrous to do this when they do not actually know what land is associated with a conventional farm (unless you claim subsidies), but I want to ensure I stay within the law.

It seems to me that the RPA, SVS and BCMS systems cannot really cope with the concept of land away from a main holding or effectively share information. For example, my TB testing period for the postal address is 24 months, most of the land is in a 12 month test period parish. I have notified them of this but they are not sure what to do!

Sorry I have gone off topic, but I feel very strongly that the principles of what the regulations are trying to achieve are important, but fundamentally flawed. They are also wasteful of resources by being split over so many different bodies using different systems.

redhill · Post by **redhill** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:05 am

Good news, calf mentioned on page 1, has found the milk bar! Sue

I can't find the little smiley face but take that as read

wagra dexters · Post by **wagra dexters** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 1:24 pm

We learnt two things the hard way, following a junior bull win with a Woodmagic Hedgehog 3rd yearling at Royal Melbourne a few years ago.

1/ Always demand to proof read any interview you may have had with a journalist before it is published.

2/ Never believe a word of it, because the interviewee may not have known to proof read the article.

Margaret.

redhill · Post by **redhill** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 12:53 pm

Sky seven day news today, a much better view on Dexters, special thanks to Martin and Caroline Ryder, for making the point very clear that Dexters are cattle, not little pet cows.
We have the local farming journalist coming this afternoon to look at and do a feature on Dexters, she is a farmers wife, so no fears of the "urban pet" theory here .
Sue Osborne, Castlemears Herd, Forest of Dean

Inger · Post by **Inger** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 5:30 am

Bjreroberts, the splitting up of related areas of responsibilty into various unrelated govt. departments, seems to be common across countries. We have the same thing happen here. I have two different govt. departments contacting me about the very same imported bull, wanting me to confirm in two different ways, the bulls existance and health/eartag statis. They also issue instructions on the dire consequences of me not contacting them within a certain number of hours of the bull's demise (if it ever happened) or within a certain number of days, if I sell him to someone else.

Why pray tell, do two different govt. departments need to deal with the same bull? Can't they just divide the work load into specific areas of interest, so that I only have to deal with one govt. department? Isn't bureaucracy a wonderful thing?