Beryl Rutherford Memorial Lecture

[moomin]

What a fantastic day! A really professional conference.
Beryl would have loved it.
Di

[Saffy]

Glad it was good.
Will there be a DVD?

Stephanie

[solburydexters]

I agree with your comments regarding the day Di.
However I was disappointed that the organisers chose to give members a packed picnic lunch for which they had paid for in the charge for the event.
Meanwhile the invited guests appeared to be offered a cold buffet salad and sweet.
By my reckoning the guests and officials outnumbered the members who had actualy paid and finished up with just the packed lunch.
The 17 or so members all having the same cold buffet and sweet would surely not have streched the DCS to that extent remember we were told the event was being subsidised by the DCS.
As to a DVD I do not know. I did ask during the first presentation for a copy of the whole event and the Breed Secretary, as those there know, did assure copies would be available.
Alan Carrington

[Jac]

I think with the benefit of hindsight it might have been less potentially (for both parties) if the members had been offered the option on the application form (at extra cost) then nobody would have been any the wiser who had paid or who had not. That said, credit to all who organised the event it was a real shame that the attendance was poor on the day.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Some thoughts:- I thought is was a good day, I did not necessarily agree with all that all the speakers said but it was good to have a meeting to air such things. I probably said too much, I usually do but I do spend a lot of time thinking about the issues and take part in various on line discussions involving Dexter folk from more than one continent.

I particularly enjoyed Prof Sponenberg's talk and his diagramatic illustration of the make up of the US herd. I now understand better the obsession some of the US breeders have about the ov er influence of Saltaire Platinum. But we maybe should have had a better discussion and even illustrated slides to show how the influence of a particular ancestor diminishes with each generation. Unless, of course, that ancestor comes into the pedigree several times.

Our own herd structure is probably of similar proportions if we consider the "original population" animals in relation to our total number of registered breeding cattle.

I have great fear that if too much of a separation is made between "original population" and others, who in many cases contain totally insignificant amoun t of introgression, we will find the majority of the Dexter population excluded from certain subsidised schemes, as the "original population" will become the "native breed" as identified by DEFRA , and only they will be eligible for, eg, conservation grazing schemes, and possibly schemes which will emerge in the future, assuming farm subsidies continue. The Scottish Government already excudes Dexters from their list of Native Breeds.

My solution is that we should identify the "original population" animals in some way but take great care not to have any partition of the breed. The owners of "original population" females should very much be encouraged to mate their females to "original population" males unless a need to use an outcross to avoid a dangerous level of inbreeding. The ca lves resulting will be roughly 50% male and 50% female, and the females should be bred if possible to "original population males. However not all the bull calves will be required for breeding to "original population" females, and as many of those which reach a certain standard should be used over the main population females, the more generations included in such a scheme the more dilute any "introgression" genes will become. This should be combined with more emphasis on animals conforming to the breed standard, especially in relation to height.

To help back up my solution above, I pointed out at the end of the day, that
1. Our Appendix Register is closed, so no more introgression there.
2. Our risk of inadvertant introgression is much reduced because of parent verification by DNA
3. For the most part, our registered Dexters in UK do still look like Dexters.

Some other points probably need some thought to make all this work better.

We should do some long term research into relationship of measurable size at birth eg accurate hoof to hock length combined with chondro status, to adult size. If a reasonably accurate means of predicting adult size were found it might simplify early selection of breeding animals which would not go over heig ht later.

Consideration should be given to different height standards for chondro carriers and non carriers - it seems to me that some chondro carriers are being bred which cannot possibly give rise to a non chondro offpring which can stay within height limits.

Just a few thoughts for starters.

We have been told that the "Proceedings" of the symposium will be published, I hope this is done quite quickly.

[Jac]

Duncan said We have been told that the "Proceedings" of the symposium will be published, I hope this is done quite quickly.

I totally agree this should be done quickly. Those who keep registered Dexters need to know where they stand before any future breeding decisions are made.

[Jac]

Duncan said However not all the bull calves will be required for breeding to "original population" females, and as many of those which reach a certain standard should be used over the main population females

Unless of course you are breeding reds. Used Elmwood Mackoy advertised as original population but won't be using him again as he doesn't appear carry any red recessives only dun. I sold some straws on to another member and they had a really nice heifer calf that they are going to retain.

[Jac]

There is now an overview of the day on the DCS website via 'About Us' then 'News and Events' for those who are interested.

[solburydexters]

Also now coming up going direct to 'News and Events' bottom right of Home Page. One less click and collect!