New Year Resolutions For Dexter Cattle Society Council

[solburydexters]

Just some thoughts.
Re-introduce the meet the member meetings whereby the Council travel to various regions to meet all DCS members in the area not just affiliated group members. At least one per year at grass roots level not a 'managed' AGM. Do not use cost as an excuse. When it was done before members seemed to indicate it was worthwhile and I certainly enjoyed them. Are the present Council up to the challenge?

Don't keep paying lip service to being open with the members just do it. Give more information!

Get the Society website upto date. At present under news is 'Linear Assessment....Woodmagic Petrol - first Cow classiefied as Excellent 91' When was it 2012? and still NEWS! Come on.

'Dexter Archive
The Dexter Archive is an ongoing project.' So it says on the Society website.
OK so when are we going to see some forward movement? A special camera (second hand) was purchased some what 4 (?) years ago to photograph book pages without damaging the book. Eagely looking for the first (?) photograph off the printer and onto the website in 2016.

Does anyone else have some more suggestions remember be gentle with the Council. We can send them to the Council for their first meeting in 2016 as not all Council members look on this website.
They are so busy and/or dont want to face the facts.

Alan Carrington (former Council member).

[Jac]

Stick this on the list

http://www.countryfile.com/explore-coun ... gnise-them

Raise the profile of the Dexter.

and here's another

http://www.rbst.org.uk/Rare-and-Native-Breeds/Cattle

not even considered worthy of a mention as a native breed.

[ann]

bst.org.uk/Rare-and-Native-Breeds/Cattle

not even considered worthy of a mention as a native breed.

I have sent her an e-mail asking why they are not included, if I get an answer I will post it
I have today (2/1/16)received a reply from the author of this article as below, at least she had the courtesy to reply

Thank you for your email and for reading my article online. There was no particular reason for not including the Dexter, only that I was restricted to only write about 10 breeds, so my edit was very tight. I sure do agree with you that I could have included the Dexter, as well as many other great cattle breeds. The Dexter is actually one of my favourite breeds for their visual appeal/appearance and I have photographed them in my work before.

I hope this answers your enquiry.

[solburydexters]

Jac.

"THE COMPANIES ACTS 1985 AND 2006 COMPANY LIMITED BY
GUARANTEE
Articles of Association of The Dexter Cattle Society Charity Number 1000520
Interpretation

Dexter Cattle” means the smallest breed of cattle native to the British Isles.” Amended AGM Oct 2012"

Well it is a native breed according to the Society Articles so once again members need to ask is the Council doing anything about it?

There have been meetings between a Staff member and Officer of the DCS with the RBST during this year.
However Council meeting summaries are very sparse on this.
Regrettably Council members get very little time to discuss points at Council meetings with papers being presented late or even on the day. Together with emails between the Trustees as a group having been positively discouraged over the last two years, one officer even having stated their 'Inbox' got horribly full, there has not been a full and meaningful discussion on where we are going on this.
Again to the detriment of the breed.

[Rob R]

There are often calls for members to put themselves forward for council but with scant details of what that involves and only murmurings from disgruntled members and ex-council members to go on (which seem to be dismissed by the society in the first instance) there seems to be little incentive. Having fresh ideas is one thing, but no one wants to waste time and money joining a secret society that may not be compatible with their own ideas. The complete lack of effort to open up any lines of communication via social media is one aspect that speaks louder than words.

[JohnnyP]

British Isles : a group of islands off the NW coast of continental Europe consisting of Great Britain, Ireland and over 6,000 smaller isles. (Wikipedia)

UK: Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

So the British Isles includes Kerry in the SW of Ireland, whereas the UK does not.

I was disappointed years ago to find that Dexter is not eligible for funding under the Scottish Rural Development Programme because it's not classed as native or traditional.

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/farmingrural ... onalcattle

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Johnny, this was raised by Gaye Murray years ago, and I tried to get info from Edinburgh on who drew up the list of eligible breeds, I got nowhere. It was discussed with DCS and Andrew Sheppy said he would try to help, but sadly he is more interested in unsubstantiated allegations against bulls of the 1960's.

I did not realise this scheme was still open.

What members do not seem to grasp is that if there are any similar schemes south of the border the vast majority of Dexters will be excluded if the "Original Population" nonsense goes through.

The Genetics Committee of DCS Council was trying to get this sorted out when I was last on Council, but we were beaten by the dirty tricks brigade and it was one of the factors leading to my resignation.

Duncan

[JohnnyP]

Happy New Year Duncan - don't get me started on CAP Reform! You are right that the SRDP scheme for which I sent the link ended in 2014. Something similar is probably intended for the newly-reformed 2015-2020 round of funding, most likely buried deep in the "Agri-Environment Climate Scheme". But today's Scottish Government website says "We're currently reviewing the details of the options, supporting guidance and spatial targeting for applications for AECS in 2016. Please note that any updates to spatial targeting may change the options that you're eligible to apply for."

Yes, I know it's drivel, they're a year late, and worst of all they end a sentence with a preposition, but trying to stay on subject, I've no reason to think that the bureaucrats have changed their list of traditional and native cattle!

[Duncan MacIntyre]

We need to revisit the issue of which breeds count as native in Scotland.

We are to have a telephone conference for the Scottish Group Committee very soon, I will see what others think.

Duncan

[JohnnyP]

I've just come across the list of breeds which are eligible for SRDP funding in the current 2014-20 CAP round:

Aberdeen Angus
Ayrshire
Belted Galloway
Galloway
Riggit Galloway
White Galloway
Highland
Luing
Shetland
Shorthorn
Whitebred Shorthorn

[Duncan MacIntyre]

We did discuss this at our group committee teleconference call, and will try to take it furtheer. One of the problems is identifying just who is the best individual to ask about it. I will be speaking to a very senior Scottish Government vet next week and will ask who's ear we should be bending.

Duncan