Last weeks episode of "Mud, Sweat and Tractors : The Story of Agriculture" was on beef.
It can be found on the BBC iPlayer site click here
The two most interesting pints for me were:
1) Height - how the Aberdeen Angus bulls of old used to be belt buckle height compared with shoulder height today.
2) Carcass grading - how some now want to get away from the emphasis on size in the EUROP grid to include taste and tenderness. It would be interesting to see the impact of any proposed changes would have on Dexter meat?
Edited By bjreroberts on 1241943512
Mud, Sweat and Tractors on BBC4
-
bjreroberts
- Posts: 199
- Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 3:12 pm
- Location: Bromsgrove
-
dexter emily
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Sun May 10, 2009 8:23 am
- Location: Preston
Hi Ben
I watched the programme the other day. It's a brilliant advert for British breeds in the face of the "continental invasion" (their words not mine).
I also recommend (in the same series) the episode "MILK". Really interesting to see the changes in demand on these animals as agriculture has changed.
The height of the Angus was most interesting and I had no idea how much breeds changed in a relatively short space of time to meet economic demands. I would be interested to know how the Dexter has changed. Are there are archived photos of really old Dexters? I think the Angus was at its shortest in 1976.
Emily
I watched the programme the other day. It's a brilliant advert for British breeds in the face of the "continental invasion" (their words not mine).
I also recommend (in the same series) the episode "MILK". Really interesting to see the changes in demand on these animals as agriculture has changed.
The height of the Angus was most interesting and I had no idea how much breeds changed in a relatively short space of time to meet economic demands. I would be interested to know how the Dexter has changed. Are there are archived photos of really old Dexters? I think the Angus was at its shortest in 1976.
Emily
-
Broomcroft
- Posts: 3005
- Joined: Wed Sep 06, 2006 4:42 am
- Location: Shropshire, England
- Contact:
I remember Angus's as the small black cattle but not quite buckle height. That would be in the sixties. And I remember beef back then being something we looked forward to instead of the tasteless blotting paper that came soon afterwards.
Some of the Hereford's shown on that program I would say had chondrodysplasia because they looked out of proportion. But nevertheless, cattle have gotten bigger and bigger and they need to get smaller and smaller. To satisfy the market though, the dexter needs to be consistent and regular, or at least reasonably so. What looks like will happen to me is that people will continue to breed smaller Angus and maybe start using Lowlines or a Lowline cross. there are people hwo breed Angus for example, big time, and still do small ones and then export to South America as they used to years ago. I know at least one such farmer. I bought one of his bulls, but deliberately the next size up, sort of a bit bigger than the biggest dexter you've ever seen.
Looking at the carcass weights of dexters in various books and comparing to the cattle shown on that program, dexters (those unaffected by chondro) are regularly quite a lot bigger, or at least the same as the AA were back when those movies were taken.
It was a great programme, something you have to see. I loved the way the farmer held up the piece of white clover and said this is the future of farming. Clover seems to hold the answer to everything and on our farm it is definitely the best thing we ever introduced in terms of grazing, feed value and the soil. It also introduces much larger amounts of omega 3 and other beneficial fatty acids than grass apparently (2/3'rds more 'ish).
Edited By Broomcroft on 1241963968
Some of the Hereford's shown on that program I would say had chondrodysplasia because they looked out of proportion. But nevertheless, cattle have gotten bigger and bigger and they need to get smaller and smaller. To satisfy the market though, the dexter needs to be consistent and regular, or at least reasonably so. What looks like will happen to me is that people will continue to breed smaller Angus and maybe start using Lowlines or a Lowline cross. there are people hwo breed Angus for example, big time, and still do small ones and then export to South America as they used to years ago. I know at least one such farmer. I bought one of his bulls, but deliberately the next size up, sort of a bit bigger than the biggest dexter you've ever seen.
Looking at the carcass weights of dexters in various books and comparing to the cattle shown on that program, dexters (those unaffected by chondro) are regularly quite a lot bigger, or at least the same as the AA were back when those movies were taken.
It was a great programme, something you have to see. I loved the way the farmer held up the piece of white clover and said this is the future of farming. Clover seems to hold the answer to everything and on our farm it is definitely the best thing we ever introduced in terms of grazing, feed value and the soil. It also introduces much larger amounts of omega 3 and other beneficial fatty acids than grass apparently (2/3'rds more 'ish).
Edited By Broomcroft on 1241963968
Clive