long x long..

[debra wiltshire]

Not sure if I have asked this before!

General question in our household that keeps going around without ever getting a clear answer...we have asked a few people but generally we get a different answer everytime!

If you cross a non short with another non short...can you get short legged offspring?

[Duncan MacIntyre]

No. Assuming that by short you mean the traditional short dexter carrier of the bulldog gene. Long legged dexters do not carry such a gene so cannot pass it on.

Conversely short x short can produce long. because each parent passes on one gene to contribute to the pair in the offspring. Since shorts carry one normal and one chondrodysplasia gene, they will hand on this to the offspring - giving a possiblilty of 25% bulldogs, 50% short legged dexters, and 25% long legged.

Short x long, so well recognised as the way to avoid bulldogs, gives 50% short and 50% long.

I have tried to copy my article from the bulletin a while back but cannot get the diagrams on which is a pity.

Duncan

[debra wiltshire]

Thank you for that information Duncan...can you remember which issue of the bulletin it was published?

[Broomcroft]

Here's a link to chondrodysplasia on the American website......

http://www.dextercattle.org/genCDChondroarticle.htm

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Hello Debra,

I don't remember which issue, but I wrote the piece in October 2009.

Duncan

[Denise]

Hi Debra -
if you test your animals for the Chondro gene - then u will be know for sure about the animals being either carriers of chondro or clear of chondro
- because not all "long legs" are non-carriers, and not all "short legs" are carriers.
there are some whose pheontype does not show their correct genotype ! not many, but enough to occasionally "throw u a curly ball"!

[marcus]

Hi,
Have you got an example of a short leg that does not carry the gene, I,ve never heard of one before, and so never bother to test for it.
Marcus.

[Broomcroft]

Marcus, if you go to http://www.woodmagic.co.uk/ there are 2 complete galleries of photos, all are short non-shorts. We've got some short non-shorts as well but no photos I'm afraid.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

After suffering 4 bulldog calves from 3 females in less than a year I resoved to breed "long legs" as short as short legs. I now have several females in my herd who do not reach the minimum height for the breed standard, but none are chondro carriers. I also have 2 older cows and 4 first calvers from the Woodmagic herd. One of the first calvers was 33inches high when calving at 34months. I am not very good at getting pictures on here but some of my herd can be seen on facebook - look for Burnside Dexter Cattle

Duncan