The problems in France

[Lasserade]

We have a very small herd on 8 hectares in the south of France, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. The number of (registered) pedigree Dexter herds in France can be counted on one hand. And this is a large place. There is only one other herd within 300 kilometers.

There are other animals that are, or could be registered, but their owners only register as a herd for a few months/years or on balancing the dis/advantages, not at all. Then they drop their registration.

There may be in the lack of seriousness in the owners, they buy them for cutting the grass, then find that they are hard work, maybe. There may be other reasons of an administrative nature that makes people here give up their animals. The throughput in the last two years has been large.

Is the situation similar in the UK?

One very obvious difference is administrative. In the UK the Dexter is a recognized breed. Here we are classified as "other foreign beef breed" and not a rare breed, (which if we were would carry a supplemented subsidy). Dexters are not regarded as a serious breed, this may be why the owners are reluctent to maintain a pedigree, on their herd.

The problem for those of us who remain registered is that we need a critical mass to maintain a viable community of cows/bulls, that we can buy in to breed from.

I know no one here is going to solve our problem, but I will be interested in your thoughts, comparisons from other communities, and other less obvious reasons why we may be experiencing these problems.

[Rob R]

Apart from the Dexter being a more numerous breed in the UK, I would say that, on the whole, the situation is very similar in the UK. There seems to be many Dexters available on Preloved, but so often they are 'pedigree' but don't come with papers. I think that to a lot of people they have a novelty value & are regarded as easier to keep than larger breeds, which isn't necessarily so (I'd envy people who keep their cattle in behind a single strand of barbed wire...).

[Broomcroft]

Perhaps people are just keeping them for beef and don't want to register? Not much different here. I have sold loads over the years and almost none have been to registered people. They just want to do beef, usually for themselves and friends only.

[Kate]

I totally agree with you Chrissie - my view is, as long as I am selling a 'true' dexter that meets the UK breed standards, even if the purchaser doesn't want to register them, they have an animal that will show and publicise the image of a true dexter which is what we need in France. There are too many 'dexters' that are crosses - not that thats a bad thing to improve weight and beefiness - but these are being marketed as true Dexters.

It needs dedicated people with 'pedigree' animals to try and advance the breed over here - the main problem I find is people buy a pedigree heifer or cow and then they cannot find a pure or pedigree bull - to rent or loan a bull is far to complicated and costly with the French disease restrictions. AI is available but not unless you know where to look ! I feel people would be more likely to continue along the pure or pedigree theme if they could obtain semen more easily. I have looked into bring semen over from UK and making it available to the general public but its expensive and an ongoing cost with the monthly rental .

Anyway we are increasing our herd in France and have a list of people wanting heifers - they maybe for mowing the lawn but everyone who looks over the hedge will say - 'c'est quoi ça comme vache ?'
and it may increase sales and interest in the breed as a whole !

Kate
Nordens Dexters
Department 03 Allier
France

[PorcPrunus NL]

Here in Holland we have only 300 pedigree Dexters. There are some people (non-members) breeding and not registrate their calves by Holland Dexter. I think that are 5-10 breeders which bred max. 50 animals who could be pedigree if registrated at the right time. Each year a few of these become pedigree after parent verification (cost about 150 Euro, but difference in price (pedigree vs non pedigree) is more about 300 Euro).

A few people use Dexters (shorty's) for upgrading other races, especialy to make them smaller. Dahomay, galloway and miniature Zeboe

Dexter beef is not an issue in Holland. There are now some farmers thinking about the idea, (I'm one of them.)
Now Dexters are kept because they are rare, small, friendly and funy looking. Most people have 2 or 3 mother cows. The greatest farmer has 13 suckling cows!

The members of Holland Dexter (103 last week) are aware of joining an organisation who does more than registering Dexters and writing Herdbooks.
We bring our members together, when they are searching for a young bull. To buy or to change. Last year we have 'arranged' 3 deals of changing (young) bulls to decrease inbreeding %.

I think that's an important issue for your society: bringing people together without getting involved with prices.

As Holland Dexter we try to import semen from the UK to improve our cattle. At our farm we try to get at least one animal sired by an English AI bull a year. In practisch this means that we AI our heifers 1 or 2 times. After that they may run with a bull. (last year we have AI'd with MacDuff, Talos and Dannyboy, hoping for 3 wonderful heifer calfs with (for us) fresh bloodlines behind)

There are a few breeders in Belgium who imported Dexter cows. Progeny from these cows are imported in Holland. This introduced new bloodlines for Holland.

All these things are important for a society to keep on. But your members have to buy the cows, import cattle or buy the semen. Just motivate them!