Where ever they roam Dexters are Irish and Proud Of It!
Dexters are well known as Irish Dexters even if many other points about them are debated. The above bull though registered with the Dexter Cattle Society is an Irish Dexter with a “fine type and constitution” as the article states. I checked, he certainly was owned and breed by Mr. W. Lindsay Everard of Ratcliffe. This article holds true to the fact that Dexters are known to be of a small type of cattle. That very small cattle were known to roam Ireland before “Mr. Dexter” was ever penned in History. In Kerry there was known to be some of the smallest type of cattle one can imagine, long before Dexters were ever established or organized into a true breed. So small of an animal that it is mentioned in this paragraph, but yet still producing 2 gallons of milk a day is a marvel indeed. The brown article was written on 14 Nov 1929, it’s from the Western Daily Press Bristol. The picture was taken from a later newspaper published in 1930. Though the Dexter was well known to produce ample milk and was “closely allied to the Kerry breed and very similar to it in general appearance.” The differences being that “Dexters are “more stoutly built and rounder in their contours”.
The Dexter has a “stronger head than the Kerry, but very clear cut, shorter below the eyes and broader at the muzzle”. The description of her horns are as follows ” Her horns are thicker and usually after rising upwards bend backwards towards the points”. It is interesting to note that she is even fleshier than the Kerry but was thought to look a better milker than the Kerry. Short cows with large udders seem to showcase the udder in a much more extreme way than a longer legged cow though the udder could be of the same size. The article really goes on to highlight the excellent milking attributes of a Dexter to great lengths. A point worth mentioning is that “there is hardly a prettier sight than a herd of Dexters grazing in a park”. I personally can’t help but look out at my hills and know this rings true to me today, just as much as it must have to the writer of this article in the past! Dexters truly are practical and beautiful when bred for all these amazing Historical traits!
Breeders have long been concerned with breeding to “type” and a few points to mention in this last photo that align with the Standard Description of a Dexter is the color being “Whole black or whole red”. The “Head short and broad” with “great width between the eyes”, and “tapering gracefully twords the muzzle. Dexters definetley impress with their specific beautiful traits and charming ways which took hold of many a wealthy land owner who could aford to buy any exotic cattle they chose. In conclusion Dexters and their “pretty little calves are very fascinating”! They are Irish and Proud of it and those of us who breed them, have been taken by their Irish Charms.
Dexters have long been hailed as hardy and thrifty even adaptable to locations from Africa to snow laden areas. This article I am sharing was written by R. Tait Robertson; he was a famous and most influential Dexter breeder for his day. He was not just any armature Dexter owner, since he was a foundational breeder of Dexter cattle and a generational farmer. He explained that” I have on my farm over 100 of them (Dexters) lying out at present, and they will continue so all winter, getting nothing beyond what they can pick up and a small portion of hay night and morning”. What this means is that Original Dexters could get by on just a little, but of course they could thrive on even more. It was often said that when the Dexters of Ireland went to the manor lands of England they grew greater in size due to the surplus. Dexters can do well on just forage and hay alone with no grain needed. They can excel on the best rations and produce even more, but if times get tough, they can more than get by.
Who was R. Tait Robertson?
Mr. Roberston was a very influential breeder, breeding in Malahide, County Dublin, Ireland. His family later had Church Farm in Babraham, Cambridge. His Dexters were esteemed as quality and were very sought after by the English who wished to keep them. He is the son of James Robertson. They were not just multigenerational farmers but multi-generational Dexter farmers who helped shape Dexters in their early years by breeding and selection. Dexters as we know them then owed a great degree of tribute to this influential family. Mr. R. Tait Robertson was also a judge for Kerry and Dexter cattle. He judged them by the merit that this article speaks to. Someone may say that Dexters are a beef breed that can milk, but Mr. R Tait Robertson said they have “equal merit” to Kerry cattle. They were not transformed in England to a milking breed but rather selected and bred by breeders like the Robertsons for great dual-purpose traits and were heavy in exceptional dairy traits. When R. Tait Robertson speaks to their equal merit remember that he was a judge for both Kerry and Dexter cattle and those judges gave prizes and entered both Kerry and Dexter cattle into the foundation herd books for the Royal Dublin Society. Dexters are not, nor have they ever been a beef breed that can be milked, but rather a dual-purpose breed with equal merit in milking traits to an ancient breed of dairy cattle (Kerry cattle) that can excel at grass-based feeding.
Lamancha Dexter Herd
Mr. R. Tait Robertson was the owner and or collector of the cattle in the La Mancha Herd. He or his family may not have bred them all but rather selected some as foundational cattle for the Dexter breed. You will often see La Mancha Dexters registered to him, his father or Robertsons and sons. His Dexters traveled to many countries and those Dexters that could be found “Lying out all winter long, getting nothing more than what they can pick up and a small portion of hay Night and Morning” run in the veins of our Dexters today. This article I shared was written on 16 December 1899 and La Mancha Love Lost was born in 1897. She was qualified by inspection most likely by Mr. R. Tait Robertson and would have spent time in his field while this article was written. It’s nice to think of such a beautiful cow lying out in your pasture all winter long, getting nothing more than what she can pick up and a small portion of hay night and morning then still looking so beautiful! That’s the kind of Dexter I want.
This is an interesting article on how people are returning to the old ways and using more and more of their processed beef. Healthier alternatives are growing in your pastures!
Another registry “innovation” finds the US herd a hodgepodge of mediocre and forgettable initialed herd names. The US is the ONLY country in the world that has so little respect for Dexters they guarantee breeders basic anonymity by using initials of farm names as herd identifiers! Goodness but it IS forgettable.
Here’s an example. I was trying to convince a new breeder about to register a first calf NOT to use the initials encouraged by the US registries for it all but determines anonymity for their herd. Truth be told. . . . there are only two initialed herds in the US I remember by initials, both because the owners were/are prominent in the breed. So, . . . I gave this person examples of wonderful and imaginative herd names, and then I looked at the state of Virginia ( where the owner lived) and picked out three herds with initials. I know most herds and owners by heart through constant research. . . and I looked at the initials and began the process of trying to remember the herds. It was a struggle! One of the herds I knew very well because my own bloodlines founded the herd and it was a perfect example of how even a constant researcher will NOT recognize herd initials. Almost guaranteed anonymity and obscurity unless the person becomes a huge long-term breeder with a large herd.
Woodmagic was chosen by Beryl Rutherford because it was based on a favorite book from childhood, and all her Dexters were named after woodland creatures and birds. Grinstead brings a smile to one’s face, with or without the beautiful photos of that herd and it’s dominance in pedigrees through the years. Most English herds were named after the homes or estates or towns where they grazed. It would be interesting to know the history of the choice of La Mancha for the Robertson family’s Dexter herd, but Round Chimneys leaves little to the imagination. Parndon was a parish in Essex, England, and the origins of Ypsitty is still a mystery to me. My least favorite herd name in the English records is Bryn-y-pin because it was difficult to type.
American herd names prior to the 90’s were also imaginative and memorable. Peerless certainly lived up to it’s identity, and every Missouri Dexter owner would immediately know the roots of “Shome”! Shamrock immediately brings to mind the hallowed green leaf of Ireland, while Rainbow and Rainbow Hills are colorfully soothing to imagine. Talisman is a herd name I always liked, and there is a Virginia herd that lives in literal “Paradise”. The Lone Star and Cascade herds identify their geographic locations but also denote history, and Chautauqua identifies an area of NY where the herd is located. ( Another typing challenge for me).
Then we have SGF and SMD. These herds are owned by long-time well known breeders. Can you immediately identify these herds or do you have to stop and think as I did with a herd I knew as well as my own? In England, or Australia, or even Canada, you would most likely know these herds as Spruce Grove or Silver Maple and the identifier would be far more memorable.
One registry started this and the other continued this nonsense of encouraging owners to use initials and give US Dexter herds guaranteed mundane, boring, and unimaginative herd identifiers. This is an “only in America” tradition that needs to fade into the obscurity IT deserves. Please registrars. . . . STOP . .. . .suggesting to owners to use initials. If you are fairly new to the breed. . . . . then CHANGE those initials to a memorable herd identifier and INSIST on it.
IF. . . you are a new breeder and happen to read this page. . . . . . . . . . . . . your Dexter breeding program deserves a unique identity. I strongly urge you not to be led down the initialed path to anonymity.
Here is a great video from Greg Judy about the benefits of grazing cattle through snow. He includes tips on keeping water from freezing, looking out for parasite issues, and keeping your operation profitable.
Many thanks to Judy Sponaugle of the Legacy Registry for providing the Irish Dexter Cattlemen with this valuable information. This is the first in a series of excerpts from The American Kerry and Dexter Cattle Club.
It is a great find for all you Dexter history buffs! Seeing some of the old advertisements and recognizing some of those herds was a thrill for me.
Here is the second installment in the series of The American Kerry and Dexter Cattle Club brought to us by Judy Sponaugle of Legacy. Hope your enjoying the series!
How much dairy should we put in to a Dual purpose Dexter cow. If you were to consult the English herd books they would say 40 percent for the “Bag” with the remaining percents being 15 for the “Head and neck”, 25 for the “Body, top line, under-line, ribs, setting of the tail, shortness of the leg, ect.”, 10 for “Quality and Touch” and 10 for “Colour”. So 40 points goes to the quality of the udder while 25 points gets divided up between the “Body, top line, under-line, ribs, setting of the tail, shortness of the leg, ect.”. It seems to me that in Dexters the focus today tends to fall primarily on mostly two aspects alone: shortness of leg and body type with general conformation coming in at the end. Even with 3 aspects it only accounts for 25 points for a Dexter. So there is a hyper focus on 25 % of a Dexter while the 40 percent in often neglected. The length of a cow’s leg and it’s depth are not the only traits that define a Dexter. Of course, we can’t forget the other traits that almost no one talks about, the “Head and neck”. You don’t get much meat off a head but it adds a distinct breed defining trait to a cattle type to set them apart.
It’s interesting to note that Kerry cattle that became a distinct dairy breed separated from the dual-purpose Dexter also list 40 points for the udder. The only difference is that more details are mentioned about the bag, “Udder, size, situation of teats, milk veins and escutcheon”. Now before major concern sets in, consider that this point system is based on an ideal cow. There will always be cows in a breed that are not ideal, but the goal is to breed for the ideal cow. If you look at the 3 pictures of Kerry cattle, I will share you will see that Walton Bashful is listed as ideal and her udder is the best of the three cows shown. I’d say if an udder is ideal enough for a Kerry it can likewise be good enough for a Dexter that uses the same 40 percent system. Of course, there is no problem with having an even better udder than this cow does! The next Kerry is Valencia Eileen III. You will immediately see that she could improve on her forward attachment, but she was a Kerry all the same. The final cow is Ard Caeina Una. You will see she has some attachment issues, and you will tell that her udder is hanging lower by her hocks. The placement of her teats are too close and awkward but they were still put to use, as you will see by reading her milk record. Her yield 14,562 lbs with her butterfat at 4.33 percent. Still a valuable Kerry cow. With Dexters we need to seek generational improvement in dairy traits as Dexter’s udder points are just important as Kerry cattle, but we also need to remember that improvement is generational and culling cows with good production and butterfat won’t instantly fix a problem. It could lead us to a breed full of cows with very tight nonproductive udders just because new people think a tight looking udder is an aesthetically pleasing udder.
This the name used to describe chèvre cultured cow milk. Traditionally made chèvre is done with goat milk, but the process can be made with cow and sheep milk also. When made with sheep milk it is called brebis. We have experienced all three and love each of them. Give it a try and see what you think.
Legacy Dexter Cattle Registry seeks to preserve Irish Dexter bloodlines from the English upgrade/appendix registry. Support Legacy Irish Dexters by registering your Irish Dexters.
Preparing cattle to travel to their new home can be overwhelming. Reliable transportation, health papers, disease testing – here’s what you need to know before shipping livestock across state lines.
I think one of the hardest things for farmers, ranchers and homesteaders is when they need to sell something off the farm. That journey should start well before you need to sell something.
Let’s look at the model I use for selling of Dexter beef.
I share all of the information about our wonderful breed I can, on social media …especially things like, dropping the names of famous chefs that have come to appreciate the quality of our beef. I also share podcasts, articles and pictures of Dexters in the field, on the plate and in its packaging from the butcher.
So now you have some beef that will be ready to be processed in a few months and you don’t need it for your family. This is when you need to start looking for potential customers.
How to get started
The first thing you need to do is decide what you are going to sell and its value. One of the easiest ways to do this is to look at the market…check out sites like the Irish Dexter Cattlemen, Craig’s List and local social media sites. By comparing what you see on these you will be able to determine what the price point of what is selling in your area.
Things to keep in mind are is it grass-fed and grain finished or grass-fed and grass finished. The grass-fed grass finished tends to command a higher price. Another consideration is vaccinated, as more and more folks are looking for unjabbed…this is a term I see more and more. The more specialized your finished product is, the more you can ask. I say you can ask…because not every customer values that. It’s about building the clientele at this point.
Build your own customer base
Once you start to get customers, you will then need to retain them and encourage them to tell their friends. We always follow up immediately after they get their first quarter or half. Your butcher can also be a big help to you. He sees and works with a lot of different breeds and will have a much bigger customer base than you. A really good butcher is so important to your finished product and especially your yield. My butcher is wonderful about sharing what we have produced and bragging on it for us!
Not everyone knows what Dexter cattle are and that we have, well in my opinion and many of our customer’s opinion, one of best dual purpose , beef and dairy breeds. So, how do you get them to see the value of your beef and our breed? For us, it was finding like minded folks. People who were not looking for meat from the local grocery store. Someone who understood, that by buying the whole, half or quarter of the Dexter they would see an overall better value than the price of just the burger. Our burger is ancestral beef, another differential that sets us apart from many of the other farmers in our area. It includes a percentage of organ meat. This maybe valued by your customer, if they are health conscious…or maybe not important to others or even a put off, to some.
Once they have bought from you, you need to ask them when they will need more. You want to retain that customer and build on that base. If they rave about it…ask them to tell their friends and family. Word of mouth is so much less work and keeps your pipeline full. If you can’t fill their needs, find another Dexter owner who you can work with and help each other. For us, it’s about getting them to buy Dexter.
Dealing with objections
Common objects are:
I don’t know if I have enough freezer space…or how big a freezer do I need. We have many articles, videos and personal writings on the this in the IDC Gazette But the amount of beef produced is a huge selling feature, as the Dexter doesn’t give the average family, too much to deal with.
In many states they need to pay you for the Dexter and the butcher for the processing. In other states, they are done at USDA facilities and payment can be made to you including the processing. Or it can be sold as individual cuts. If selling individual cuts, more homework will need to be done determining the prices of those individual cuts. So, money can be a factor, as some will need to accrue for it unless you are selling individual cuts.
And my all time favorite objection …I need to talk to my husband or my wife…and then you hear crickets. You still need to follow up. Understanding objections can only help you hone your selling skills and prepare you for crazy objections like this last one….lol
Using the Irish Dexter Cattlemen Marketplace
I use the ad I generate using the Irish Dexter Cattlemen for selling. Why? Because it’s looks professional, I don’t have my own website and I don’t want to write a bunch of different ads.To best utilize the ad, I take a picture of it, so they have something to look at and then copy and paste the link of the ad into different social media groups and sometimes even Craig’s list. Not everyone uses social media or Craig’s list. So, by using the IDC Marketplace, I have exposure there on the website and in the FREE monthly newsletter, giving me two more vehicles for selling. By doing it this way, I only write the ad once and then copy and paste, giving it a professional and consistent look. Feed back from some of the buyers off the site have been very positive. They like that everything is in the ad…registration numbers if applicable, location, price and if it is negotiable and that they can have a private conversation.
When sharing on social media I choose local sites, as shipping, is not much of an option with cost of shipping and the need to keep it frozen. I also use the Irish Dexter Cattlemen featured post on FB and some of the cattle groups that serve my area, as it’s just not feasible for people to drive great distances for their beef.
Repetition
Just because you post something once doesn’t get it sold. People don’t typically look back through post from a week ago or a month ago. When they’re wanting to buy something they usually look back maybe a couple of days.
I suggest you post on Thursdays or Fridays and again on the weekend to get people looking at what you have available.
If you are keeping your pipeline full, and you are building your clientele, the repetition will not need to be as much. You will develop wait lists and those lists will need to be worked. Just because they’re on your waitlist doesn’t mean they’re going to buy again. You need to touch base with them periodically and keep it current because they may have decided to buy somewhere else. I find if you touch base with them monthly or every other month, you’re more likely to keep them on your list of potential buyers.
So in conclusion, the important things to remember are
Look professional.
Start to sell before your are taking your Dexter for processing.
Build up the quality of the breed and its beef….you never know you may sell breeding stock too to that beef customer.
Learn to deal with objections in a positive manner.
Remember, posting it once doesn’t get it sold.
Here is one of my favorite podcasts for educating buyers about our wonderful breed.
I sincerely hope this helps you…if you have more ideas, feel free to comment. I would love to hear some of your feedback or unique ways of selling your beef and breeding stock.
Our journey to homesteading began about five years ago. My husband and I were searching for self-sustainability, a quieter life, and a deeper connection to the land. Raised in the suburbs with every modern convenience, we only knew which grocery store had the freshest beef. That was the extent of our food sourcing knowledge.
Once we acquired our acreage, we started, as many do, with chickens. At the time, I hadn’t even considered milking animals myself, so I went looking for farm-fresh milk. I found a local source, and with it, a whole new world. We began picking up a couple of gallons each week, but it didn’t take long before we wanted to produce our own.
That’s how we ended up with Nubian goats.
I was intimidated by the idea of milking and caring for them, but goats felt less daunting than a full-sized milk cow. Still, I had always loved and admired the Dexters at pickup. Just being around them brought a peace I couldn’t explain. They were a dream, something for “someday.”
Fast forward a few years, and someday finally came.
About a month ago, we brought home our first Dexters: a heifer and a steer. And how’s it going? In a word? beautifully.
The first thing I noticed was their peaceful nature. Just being near them calms my nervous system in a way I can’t begin to describe. I’m absolutely head over heels in love. I’ve started thinning down my goat herd to make room for more Dexters in the future.
I’m learning to be a pasture and grass farmer (also moving fencing, adding pastures) all to better serve my Dexters. I’m excited to contribute to the breed by selecting strong lines and continuing the work that’s already been poured into my girl, Fiona.
Am I still intimidated by the idea of milking them? Absolutely. Will I do it anyway and love it once the time comes? Without a doubt.
There’s still so much to learn—about pasture management, breeding, and eventually milking—but I’m ready. With the right mentors and a heart full of determination, we’ll thrive. Fiona and Chuck are home now, and so are we. This is just the beginning of a lifelong journey with Dexters, and I couldn’t be more excited to walk it one peaceful step at a time.
I’m looking forward to many years alongside this incredible breed.
When you consider that people in the past were a bit confused about the difference between a Dexter (Dexter Kerry) and a Kerry you understand why it confuses people now. The fact that Dexters were called Dexter Kerry for many years after the two breeds were split from each other, continued to confuse people, thinking that Dexters were still no different than the Kerry breed. It’s interesting to note that in the Royal Dublin Society Kerry cattle were described as shorter than other cattle, so short that a full-grown cow was said to be the size of just a yearling (that was in 1890 when most breeds of cattle were smaller than they are now). As you can see Dexter cattle were not the only short ones as Kerry cattle have a long history of being smaller in stature too. If you have Dexters you can recognize that there is a strong similarity in the description of size among many of them. I have people come to my farm and confuse a full grown dehorned cow for a yearling of another breed. Once the two breeds were separated there immediately would have been a breeding divergence. Very detailed breed standards were already created that defined Dexters before 1911 at the time of the first printing of The American Kerry and Cattle Club Bulletin one. Following those standards for all the years prior would have helped pave the way for the breeds to be separated and defined as their own, but yet the confusion remained as can be seen in the below picture, because the breeds had so many similarities.
Waterville Violet The Kerry Cow
The cow in this photo above is from Bulletin One of The American Kerry and Dexter Cattle Club. It was printed in October 1911. This is the old name for the ADCA (American Dexter Cattle Association). The cow photographed is named Waterville Violet and in her description the title Dexter has been crossed out. Was this just a scribble that someone made at a later date randomly or was it something scratched out to add a correction after it was printed?
If you check the records in the ADCA you will find no Waterville Violet mentioned. If you look for a Kerry cow by the name of Waterville Violet you will turn up multiple citations of her as a Kerry cow. It looks like Violet was a Kerry heifer who calved in 1902 so we can get an idea that she was already quite mature by the time she was mentioned in the 1911 Bulletin. As much as things can be confusing it’s fair to say Dexter or not there are still purebred registered Dexters of today that look like Violet.
James E. Butler of Waterville: Judge and Breeder
James E. Butler owned the Waterville herd. Mr. Butler owned and bred both Kerry Cattle and Dexters, as many of the original breeders of Dexters did because in selection the black more dairy type became Kerry and the cattle a bit thicker, black and red, possessing dual purpose traits became Dexters. Butler was also one of the judges at shows for evaluating Dexters for the entry into the herdbooks. He had a long history in the area. James Butler would have been an excellent choice for a judge due to his first-hand knowledge of Kerry and the native cattle of the land. Waterville is known as Coirean in Gaelic or “Little Cauldron”. It is a village in Kerry. The ring of Kerry passes through this town. It’s good to know that Dexters and Kerry cattle were being selected and registered by men with first-hand knowledge like James E. Butler of Waterville. I would suppose they were far more confident in the difference between a Dexter and Kerry when they were making their evaluations. I hope this has shed a little more light into the past of Dexter and even Kerry cattle.
For the first time milker or the heifer that is getting milked for the first time, there are some important things to remember for success. The article below goes over some of the basics.
We have, thankfully, only had a few that were very stubborn. We found that putting the calf in front of the cow, so she can see it helps…but when nothing works…we have reverted to letting the calf nurse one side for a short time. I do say short time, as they can drain their moms with amazing speeds.
I have included photos of our calf let down gate to give you some ideas that have worked for us. You can see the calf thru the little gate on the first photo. On the second photo you see the pulley. When we need to use this system…which we thankfully have only had to a few times, we tie a rope the the gate, un hook the bungee, feed the rope thru the pulley and the whole gate goes up and down so we can quickly drop it once mom starts to let down.
Calling all Beef Breeders!!! For anyone who likes a bit of Beef in their dual-purpose Dexters here’s something for you! Have you ever wondered what the Live weight, the Average daily weight gain of live weight, Weight of dressed Carcass, Percentage of carcass to gross live weight, Weight of loose fat and Weight of hide was on a Dexter Kerry or a Kerry and a Dexter Kerry cross was at the formation of the Royal Dublin Society in 1890? I wish all fields were complete as some are missing but it’s a good start. Well, here are some answers for you, so let’s see how these weights compare today. Comments are welcomed. By the way Tommy Titmouse was an Angus Dexter Kerry cross.
