There was no height standard in Ireland either. I believe the first time height was introduced to the breed standard was the DCS herd book of 1992 and I think that was increased in 1998, and maybe yet again since that time. I have all the versions detailed in a word document but I cannot remember what I named it to locate it on the computer.
I think they understood and were wise to leave off the height in the standard and use weight. I do believe we should maintain the breed as it was founded. I do not know the English cattle market, but in the US the Dexter is not accepted nor can it survive in the mainstream of cattle. There has been so much emphasis on breeding for polled and for beef that the dairy traits have been all but lost. The meat market is only successful when the producer sells from the farm. So they are not workable for commercial beef or dairy and without a breed standard to maintain them as they were founded and that niche market promoted, the breed just cannot compete and will be at risk. It is difficult for those who are riding high on the wave of fad at the moment to recognize "this too shall pass" as the breed is being pulled too far from it's roots.
Judy
The original breed description from Professor Low said they should all be round bodied and shorter legged... That's primarily a beef build.... There are lots of polled Dexters that meet Professor Low's original description and that also are very milky.... Meanwhile, here's a picture of some "Traditional" horned dexters.
I assume you missed the part of the discussion where the woman who raises and trains oxen says that as steers they continue to grow. . . .and grow. . . . . and grow. Like noses.
With regard to the oxen photo, my pair were that size too, and still growing at 12 years old when they went on OTMS. There's a poster on my academia.edu page about this, and, needless to say, much discussion in my thesis. The size is down to age of castration. My huge Dexter oxen were rubber ringed at less than a week old. Before C18th, oxen were castrated at c. 3 years old, when they had developed the bull's neck to power the yoke and the male hormones were triggered to stop growth.
Louisa Gidney wrote:With regard to the oxen photo, my pair were that size too, and still growing at 12 years old when they went on OTMS. There's a poster on my academia.edu page about this, and, needless to say, much discussion in my thesis. The size is down to age of castration. My huge Dexter oxen were rubber ringed at less than a week old. Before C18th, oxen were castrated at c. 3 years old, when they had developed the bull's neck to power the yoke and the male hormones were triggered to stop growth.
I don't see those in the picture above as having the reverse dairy-wedge shape you see in older Dexter oxen though, as per your picture of an older Bantu with the lower dewlap/brisket dimensions relative to the knee. That would suggest they're younger and therefore even bigger then him.
Do we have any more details on the source of the above picture Kirk?
Oxen photo came from 2003 ADCA Membership Directory in US. Person in picture was ADCA leadership in the past. Oxen were born in 1993, so were 10 years or under in pic.
Those very long legs on those steers aren't due to being steered.
You can bet that if you steered a boy like this non-chondro, true-short bull, he wouldn't magically sprout legs like those huge oxen.
The original Dexters were chosen to start the breed because they were compact with shorter legs. Many of them would have been truly short with truly short (non-chondro) genetics, but some would have been chondrodysplastic-dwarfs smuggling in much larger genetics with much longer legs.
Saffy, they are all long since dead now. I still have the yoke as a memento. I was merely trying to show that these very large, feminine oxen can be sired by bulls that aren't themselves particularly leggy, in response to Kirk's comments. I would also urge caution in taking statements made by Professors as ex cathedra. The are fallible mortals like the rest of us, and what is published one year may be rescinded the next.
Kirk- Cascade Herd US wrote:Oxen photo came from 2003 ADCA Membership Directory in US. Person in picture was ADCA leadership in the past. Oxen were born in 1993, so were 10 years or under in pic.
Thanks, as we can see from the other pictures, they are totally different proportions for the age compared to English Dexter oxen.
