Duffryn Diary

[Broomcroft]

Are those pictures of the same calf? At 3 months old he looks like either one of my Angus-Dexter crosses, or a Dexter with Angus in it's background.

But the calf at 6 months looks like a different animal altogether? Must be the photos.

I have found that the AA genes dominate, except for the coat. When you cross an AA with a Dexter you end up with an animal that is mainly Angus, but smaller and with a long winter coat (usually, not always, I have just one short-haired, smooth coated cross and a few straight-haired long winter-coated ones).

ALL my Angus-Dexter crosses are polled (and black). But I did have one with very large scurs that I had removed by a vet. Not sure about curls, I'll have a look at my youngsters today.

My avatar is an Angus-Dexter cross (largely Woodmagic Dexter which seem to be different from all the others).

[Broomcroft]

Here's some typical Dexter-Angus crosses (50/50 and pure pedigree both breeds) for comparison at about 7 months old:

A heifer


A steer


Another steer

[Denise]

Hi Clive - they are growing out well !
When I was upgrading (in Aussie land we could/can) I didn't get ALL poll or scurred from my first cross - I just culled any thru the sales that had horns. they tasted ok too!

[domsmith]

very nice Clive, cant see my crosses from this year through the mud. Never had a winter like it. Hopefully come the spring they will look like that!

Angus does tend to dominate, but i have a Dangus cow that looks like a big dexter. has the family resemblance of her mum.

Denise, Are you meaning you can put some angus blood in your breeding and keep them pedigree?
dominic

[Denise]

Dom - hi its the only way Australia has been able to establish a viable national herd.
our herdbook
1st cross
2nd cross
3rd cross
4th cross onwards are deemed "Dexter" as in pure.

Crossbred bulls are NOT able to be registered until they are from a 3rd cross cow by a pure bull.

so I started off with Angus cows, mated to Dexter bulls - heifers were 1st cross
those heifers mated to Dexter - resulting heifers are 2nd cross
those 2nd cross mated to Dexter - resulting 3rd cross heifers
those 3rd cross heifers mated to dexter - resulting male and female progeny registerable as Dexter.

Other breeders started off with Jersey (we sometimes get brindling from that), others with various other B.Taurus breeds, and occasionally in far north Qld in the tropics they went for B.Indicus - to try and retain tick resistance - which doesnt work after the 2nd cross anyhow and you bring in other non B.Taurus influences which are NOT dexter like! But, in the early days, to each their own.

Where Aust and NZ ran into the the Chondro gene (the 2nd one that is only in Aus/NZ) was a NZ bull that was graded up from Jersey - he was 4th cross - a lesson too late!

Hope this explains it a bit. In more recent years we have closed off the registration of 1st cross females - as it was felt the national herd had enough diversity and numbers to sustain the growth of the breed in general terms.

[Kathleen]

I feel the need to clarify some of the comments in the previous post - apologies to those who couldn't care less - but i cant abide misleading information.

~ The UK, until a few years ago, used an appendix registration system that was exactly the same as that first implemented in Australia. We originally allowed registration of F4 bulls but once the herd increased in size it was changed to F5. The difference between our grading up system and those systems used in other countries is that we employed DNA PV - but unfortunately not in the early days.

~ Jersey cattle do not cause 'brindle'. What causes brindle in an animal's coat colour is that animal receiving a copy of the brindle gene from it parents and it also being E+ (wild red) in colouration.

~ MEADOWPARK CHARLES is the bull which the 2nd mutation of the Chondrodysplasia gene has been traced back to. MC was a graded up bull going back to a RED POLL/JERSEY female - there is no proof and i have been informed that it is highly unlikely (re private email conversations with the geneticist involved in the research) that the foundation dam was the source of the 2nd Chondrodysplasia mutation. What was emphasized to me in those private conversations is the fact that MC was a F4 bull which was bred via inbreeding with only two bulls in his pedigree AND his parentage was not DNA PV'ed - consequently his pedigree is only an indication of his ancestry and not proof.

[PorcPrunus NL]

How far is the knowledge about "the second Chondrodysplasia gene" now (2013)??