History helps track changes in a herd over a period of years.
When people ask me why I think the history of Dexter Cattle is important this is just one great reason that I may give. If you see changes over years happening during the foundational years you can see how breeders were interpreting improvement during a time when people were focusing on breed selection to adhere to a standard that was the norm for the day. You can also see changes that happened over the years and genetics that were diminished in frequency or increased in frequency.
Dexter cattle, though many were black in the early days compared to today this bull Bantam in the top photo was red. During the foundational years it was much more common to find a red Dexter than it was in America prior to people intentionally selecting to increase or preserve red Dexters. Now today red is so common that if someone did not know the History of the breed, they may think it was the predominate color from the beginning.
It’s an interesting point to note; this bull Bantam was bred by the Prince of Wales at Sandringham in 1896. Bantam is what a Champion prize Dexter looked like in 1897. This location is situated in Sandringham, Norfolk, England. Dexters had a very early start of popularity in England being bred by some very noteworthy people. In 1862 Sandringham Estate was under 8,000 acres were as today the acreage is closer to 20,000 acres. If you look at the second picture you will see that in 1914 Dexters were still being breed at Sandringham by the King. The first bull Bantam has a good broad form for a Dexter of his day but when you compare him to the form of the Dexter bull that the King had in the photograph in 1914 you will see he has a broad back end as well as his front. It would be really nice to see a clearer photo of the second bull but we can see enough to consider some of his conformation. Improvements with each generation are very important and should always be improved based upon the breed standard of a breed, because without a standard there is no direction for improvement. While improving on beef traits one must always remember to improve dairy traits equally too, so as not to diminish dairy traits in favor of beef. A beautiful beefy bull is of little value to a dual-purpose breed if he only throws daughters that lack quality dairy traits. When both traits are in harmony you get a great dual-purpose Dexter.
History helps track changes in a herd over a period of years. Read More »
Historical
