Newbie

[Broomcroft]

I'm looking for two in calf heifers to start with, naturally polled, short legged and black with black genes for future breeding

Black cattle can carry other genes as you are probably aware. I have black cows that have thrown nothing but red calves because they were carrying red but not displaying it and I just happened to get a run of red calves year after year (to my delight as it happens). I also had a black bull that was from a dun cow and a red bull. He produced dun, red and black calves.

If you want black, best to pick cows from completely black lines. If either dam or sire was another colour they will be carrying the colour genes but not displaying them. You no doubt already know this but thought I'd mention it just in case. It's nice to have a one colour herd .

I'm not good on the precise technical details but that's the gist of it.

[Rossco]

Hi Stephanie

Totally agree! We have to have a seperation agreement for the show stock for the same reason so we have a couple of small fields and a few pens in a shed so any new stock/show stock are kept well away from everything else. Also we like to dose the stock for everything under the sun just to be extra safe!

Hi Clive

Yeah, guess I have a lot to think about when looking for someone to buy from, I'm thinking I'm gonna struggle to get everything I'm after now that I have been educated by everyone's posts. Having to check the ancestry of the stock and genetic problems etc! But if it's worth doing its worth doing right and I don't want to start with stock that aren't gonna produce what I want!

[Jac]

Ross, the DCS do not discourage buyers to buy at sales. It is true dexters do not do well at commercial sales but certain breed sales do have inspections by DCS represntatives, Melton Mowbray and Carlisle in particular, these tend to be specific rare or native breed sales.
One way to know the quality of the stock you are buying is to see if it has been Linear Assessed, especially bulls, the basic theory being the higher score the animal has the better quality it is.Linear should really help newbies like yourself who are a bit uncertain about what they are looking at.

Linear assessment is indeed great for newbies who are a bit uncertain about what they are buying (and breeding). It would be even more useful for those who were not buying but had linear scored animals in their pedigrees to actually see a breakdown of the score and not just the overall score on the on-line herdbook so that genetically you had some idea of what you were dealing with.

All we need now is present day recorded figures for weight gain etc together with milk yield etc and we can prove how useful the Dexter is and why commercial people should buy into them.

[Rossco]

Hi jac

Think I will get any purchases liner tested and for genetic defects if not supplied at purchase.....mind you I will think twice about purchasing stock if there has not been some effort made by the seller to provide evidence as to the quality of their stock prior to sale especially as I now know there is such a mine field of things to consider!

Regards Ross

[Rossco]

Should I consider upping the numbers for selling direct to the public what is the best way to go about it?
I suppose the most obvious option is to dispatch the stock myself, cut it up and wrap it but I am thinking that opens a can of worms that will involve training, specialist equipment and necessary health and safety checks of method of dispatch, facilities, equipment etc. i am thinking it would be easier in the long run to have a local abotoir do all the hard work and professionally wrap it so that I could add my own label afterwards? Then all i would have to worry about is refridgeration and transportation and hopefully would only need the most basic in health and safety certification? Again however I would be interested to find out what advice you have for me?

[Broomcroft]

Ross, You can only kill yourself for your own consumption as I understand it. The normal route is to try and find an abattoir/butcher (often combined) who will do the whole job for you, packed, boxed, labelled etc.

If you are a newbie and wish to market Dexter Beef, then probably best if you join the Society's beef club. I know nothing about it as I do my own thing, but I am sure someone will come along and tell you about it shortly.

It really isn't a minefield with Dexters, it's easy and they are very easy to breed and look after. In general they are as hard as nails. My opinion is, and I won't go through all the reasons why, the one thing to avoid is short-leg Dexters because they have issues. Non-shorts don't have issues, they are just straight forward cattle. I suppose the main point is the non-shorts breed true, i.e. your calves will all be similar whereas with shorties you get a mixture of short and non-short. We also had issue when breeding shorties like having to train calves to find the udders which weren't where the calf expected them to be. The beef is excellent from either. Shorties will finish earlier because they tend to get fat easier/sooner.

If you're just doing beef, then it is often the worst cows (visually) that produce the best beef calves. If I were starting over again I would go out and buy cows, not heifers, and I would hardly bother looking at the cow, just look at the calves and youngsters she'd already had and better still see if you can get the figures from what she has produced (weights, grades if possible - not much chance of that in most cases).

Just out of interest, here's a Dexter that is not particularly good as a Dexter (I think?), but she is a terrific cow, extremely maternal, easy-calving, no bother at all, and she produces cracking calves every time, year after year. Her udder is not as bad as it looks in the photo.



Every time I post a photo this forum chops off one end or the other, don't know why? They work everywhere else and on the old forum!

If you're intending selling breeding stock or showing, then best to ignore almost everything I've said .

[domsmith]

My suggestion is dont run before you can walk. get some.... eat some.... then see where it leads you.

if its beef production your thinking of and not going anywhere near shorts then genetic testing is surely unecessary, as would be linear assesing.

keep it simple.

dom

[davidw]

Slaughtering your own for sale is going to open a whole truckload of red-tape and for only a handful of animals each year is unlikely to be worthwhile. You have quite a number of licensed abattoirs in your area, so why not contact them to compare costs and ease of use.

[Rossco]

Hi clive, Dom & David

Thank you for your posts. You have all made valid points. Granted when I start it will only be for private consumption, with a view that if There is the potential to generate profit (and the wife lets me) to try and sell privately to boost our income. As I feared it sounds like the DIY route will be more trouble than it's worth. And as you have pointed out there are plenty of abattoirs in the area who could do it better for potentially less cost. I guess I need to take the first step, get some stock and see how it goes!

p.s. Clive (bit harsh on the cow in the photo perhaps?) its usually the beast that may not be a head turner that produces the best show quality stock!

Thanks folks!