Dexters with Yaks?! - Whatever next

[Penny]

Life is always challenging, getting a decent return with the beef and educating the public to what makes Dexter beef so special, but I was amazed to find out that a farmer 20 miles away has started crossing Dexters with a Yak bull.
He has got loads of publicity for his intended Yakster Burger (still many months away as the cows have apparently just had calves so the public will have to wait for this advertised delight). Now I do support diversification, and this man has it all from Emu eggs, Buffalo, wapiti etc, but I do not understand why he had to cross dexters with a Yak, especially as he is putting a Yak bull on the dexter cows and not a dexter bull onto yak cows. I would expect with the size of head and humped back could cause calving problems?
What is wrong with pure yak burgers, are they inedible?!
Competition is healthy, but I certainly did not see this one coming!!

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Have a look at www.minicattle.com

Duncan

[Broomcroft]

Penny

There's something very special about Yaks or crossing with Yaks, I can remember reading it somewhere, but can't recall what it is! When it comes back into my brain box I'll report back.

Clive

[Sylvia]

I think what might be special about them is that the Happy Mountain lot don't seem to have thought about that cross yet, I wonder (if they do) who will win the race to trademark Yaksters as their own.

Still, we know what to do now - if an unusually marked calf arrives don't send it to the freezer. Register it as a new breed and get your trademark on it PDQ.

[richmonds dun dexters]

just looked on the minicattle website have you seen the white dexters????????? im curious of there breeding and are there any in the u.k.? how have they breed these small cattle? ???

[Duncan MacIntyre]

I would be amazed if any of these cattle shown on that site would breed true.

Duncan

[Inger]

It looks more like a British White than a Dexter and the calf looks like its got Shorthorn in it. With all that flecking on its side.

[mindenho]

Inger, I would agree with you. My father had a herd of British White and the calves look just like the ones on the minicattle website particularly the blackpoints on the legs and the flecking just above. I wonder if they are British White x Dexter?

Erica

[wagra dexters]

Friends in our promotion group have Dexters and Miniature Galloways, and some of their Galloways look identical to the group photo of the 'white Dexter' calves.
Interesting, I thought, that the eye sockets of the calves in the photo are long like Angus, rather than round like Dexters.

[Woodmagic]

. Penny’s enquiry sent me hunting, the big advantages are an animal which has survived in the barren cold lands of Tibet, and the non productivity of the cross bred-males. At present there are only about 2000 in America and stock prices reflect it. The domesticated yak originated about 8000 years ago, is roughly the size of the Dexter, and easily handled. Requires
4 – 8 lbs grass or hay daily, lives to 25 years and is happy living at zero temperatures
When crossed with cattle the males are infertile and are saved the check of castration. The meat is excellent quality, very low fat, high in unpolysaturated fats, and they are good milk producers. A recently weaned crossbred ‘steer’ exhibited at five months weighed in at 400 lbs. although his birth weight was only around 35 lbs.

[Inger]

Here's a picture of some baby Yaks playing - courtesy of Woodmagic.




It looks like two of them are in the middle of a bunting game.

[Broomcroft]

We have been talking about crossing, and I think I now know what to use.

Clive

[Woodmagic]

Many thanks for your expertise Inger, the ‘battle’ looked so familiar, they could easily have been very woolly little Dexters.

[Inger]

They are cute aren't they. :laugh: I've seen lambs playing like that too.

[ann]

If they taste as nice as they look, we might have some competition

so cute it makes you think of spring