Back on the high horse

[Rob R]

As a system it sounds like it could be the perfect solution - it wouldn't work for us, for various reasons, but I'm sure that for many people who keep a few Dexters for the enjoyment of breeding Dexters it would solve a lot of the problems experienced by those breeders who struggle to move on stock. Killing earlier would not only reduce the competition for those who sell beef but also ensure there were fewer breeding stock that struggled to achieve worthwhile prices.

That said I am fairly confident in the knowledge that relatively few Dexter breeders read this forum, and even fewer will change what they do on the back of what I think, so we can look forward to some cheap prices once again at the coming Spring sales. Although low breeding stock prices are no bad thing if you're running a low input/low ourput system, as the depreciation on breeding stock is relatively small, too. In fact it might even be appreciation with a decent cull price.

[Louisa Gidney]

" If unsuccessful I may even give up breeding Dexters?" This comment of Robin's seems to be a root cause of the high turnover of Dexter herds and the reason why minority breeds return to the RBST watchlist. Not that long ago, the British White was hailed as a rare breed success story, established as a minority but mainstream breed. The population has now crashed and the breed has returned to the aegis of RBST. Such an example suggests that the short term financial return is not the way to approach the long term survival of such breeds as minority but not rare.