May 2025

This article mentions some interesting information about Dexters.

1. The owner of these Dexters mentions having pastures that were rough and neglected with no accommodation for heavy cattle, so Dexters were the most suitable cattle for the location.
2. She received young 2-3 year old heifers who had been out doors their whole lives and therefor needed no buildings to shelter them, and throve well, having plenty to range, on the rough pastures. In frosty weather they were given a little hay, but they have no concentrated food of any sort, except a handful of oats now and then from Mrs. Hoare’s coats pockets. (I personally can relate to this comment on Dexters just getting a treat here or there but not needing a concentrated feed regimen)

3. Though they were wild they became pets in short time except for one shy heifer.
4. Five of the heifers were bought in calf but two of them were Aberdeen Angus crossbreeds. Miss Hoare had a first intended to sell these for veal, as she had at first only intended to keep store stock, but when the little curly-coated (pure Dexters historically were known to have fine and silky hair) babies arrived she was so charmed she decided to keep them instead. In the picture of the four calves, the cross- bred one may easily be distinguished by the absence of horns and the peaked forehead.
   5.Perhaps the prettiest of the cows is Daisy, whose portrait is given above. She is an Irish bred one, long and low, with a very stylish head and horn. The most perfectly shaped of all is Brindle, as her name implies, she is not a fashionable color (Did not meet the breed standard), otherwise she would be good enough to win in very good company, but her calf is black as coal.

This picture is very interesting for quite a few reasons.

First Dexters though many were black in the early days compared today this bull Bantam was red.

Second and most interesting point to note, this bull was bred by the Prince of Wales at Sandringham in 1896. 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. I do wish this photo was better, but I think you can still make out the bull’s form. 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. When both traits are in harmony you get a great dual-purpose Dexter.