Posted by Kathleen Carson on March 24, 2003 at 01:03:21:
Firstly I’d like to thank Carol for posting her comments on the website for all to read.
I also have an interest in colour genetics but unfortunately I have not as yet found an avenue for DNA verification of said. So I am limited to reading and asking questions and, like Mendel, using the logical process of genetic behaviour as displayed by phenotype.
Secondly I agree with one of Carol’s comments wholeheartedly: “…the breed: emphasis away from cute, towards functionalism and production…” In my opinion this is the only way Dexter will continue to flourish in my own country. However the fact is that the colour of Dexter has actually nothing to do with ‘functionalism’ and everything to do with the intricacies of registration, showing and the perception of ‘purity’. Here in Qld I have actually witnessed exhibitors being insulted for putting cattle in the ring that others thought were ‘nonDexter’ in colour. I could digress onto the topic of ‘breed standards’ but instead I think I will just acknowledge that I understand that the subject is emotive and ask all who read my comments to please not jump to any assumptions about my opinion other than that which is actually stated.
Apparently it was in the 1800’s that breeds of cattle were ‘created’ by the use of standardization of coat colour/patterns. Part of this creation was the subjective opinion of those who created them as to which colour and pattern was ‘desirable’.
As specific to Dexter: I personally have found Curran to be an excellent read and very enlightening. Basically what can be gleaned from the known history of Dexter is that it was a dwarf of the Kerry breed. Therefore in any discussion of ‘purity’ (thought the discussion would be fruitless in terms of the modern Dexter of ANY country) we need to look at the Kerry.
Part and parcel to the ‘Kerry’ is the history of cattle in Ireland and the following points.
~The language is sometimes ambiguous and the word ‘black’ did not always mean BLACK. Therefore some descriptions may not be as reliable as some might assume.
~The Mythical Irish Cow is a gentle creature which had more white and red in its phenotype than any black and is often described as ‘brown’ which leads one to wonder if this means dark red, brown black, or our lovely Dexter ‘dun’.
~There was recorded in the 1830’s four distinct types of Irish cattle
=> The Old Irish Cow which was “all colours, but principally black and red”…
=>The Irish Longhorns which were “generally a red or brindled colour”…
=>The Maol which was “ dun, black, or white in colour, rarely mottled”…
=>and The Kerry…the description which was contemporary with the former ones does not exist in the notes because the Kerry society omitted them. However in the original herdbook reds were registered. And in the Muckross Herd reds were reportedly produced as recently as 1984. Also it is obvious that Kerry carry the recessive white on the underline as is proven by the standard stating a ‘limit’ for it to the udder/scrotum.
~Cattle were not kept ‘confined’ from each other but away from crops.
Therefore as is the case today ‘accidental crossing’ could and surely would have taken place. Let alone the fact that these ‘undesirable’ colour characteristics may have been an ‘original’ part of the breed before the relevant associations decided they were undesirable… like the Kerry association and the red coat colour. Couple these facts with the Dexter breeding practices of the 1900’s and it is ludicrous to talk of ‘true’ colours.
Now we find ourselves with a breed of cattle which has a very ‘colourful’ past and genetic makeup. I am not interested in ‘blaming’ any breeder or specific breed for any colour combinations, which are exhibited within Dexter. I think the whole discussion of colour is too caught up in trying to ‘discredit’ other breeders animals and not in the true interest of knowledge. It is the knowledge I want, knowledge, which will facilitate me in breeding the animal which I wish to breed. And it is in the interest of sharing that knowledge and perhaps expanding on it that I have gone to the bother of posting here today. I find it a sad situation (and understandable) that people will not share information because they are afraid there cattle may loose ‘value’ and their stud ‘credibility’. I told a fellow breeder some year ago that it was not their fault that they were getting calves with excess white… they had been made to feel like they were some sort of darstardly deviot because the bull they had used carried the recessive white. Anyway I digress… sorry!
The E locus is responsible for most of the variation in coat colour in cattle.
Three alleles present at this locus the black, wild, and red. The order of dominance is black>wild>red and is complete. That is to say that black is dominant over both wild and red, wild is recessive to black and dominant to red and red is recessive to both black and wild.
Now it is the wild gene that I find FACINATING!
When I first read about it I was sure I was on to something… it described Dexter to a T.
“the wild ancestor of most (or all) Bos taurus breeds is the Aurochs of Europe…they were essentially reddish brown to brownish black with a tan muzzle ring. [Please note the ‘tan ring’ exhibited in cattle breeds is on the muzzle not the nose itself…that is to say it is created by the colour of the hair] There was variation in the proportion of the body that was black and bulls were darker than cows. Animals with wild-type coat colour tend to be darker at their extremities…that is the head and neck, feet and hindquarters. Cattle of this type of brownish-black colour at maturity are born a reddish brown and darken when the calves shed out for the first time.” Does this sound familiar? This latter statement coupled with the fact that Dexter is not a solid black in colour… that is as Carol mentioned… they are actually a charcoal colour and have lighter tones in the undersides etc. made me think that Dexter was ‘wild’. Now it was actually on the basis of an article by Carol which was published in our Bulletin some years back that I discarded my original thoughts that wild may be ‘black’ in Dexter. I would be interested to see the percentages on the amount of cattle tested (and some photos to go with them) but I am nevertheless quite happy to accept that wild in Dexter is ‘red’
Now to qualify that word ‘red’ opens up a whole other problem. One of which is the perceived problem of brindle (let alone purity!). Now to diverge for a moment I have been told that brindle in Dexter is caused by certain bloodlines and breeds being mixed into the gene pool in the 1920’s… suffice to say here that certain breeds do carry brindle, one of which may well have been Dexter itself in the original days but definitely not the breed so often blamed. I have found it impossible to convince some people of this even though I find it logical and proven in my own paddock and I look forward to the day when I can DNA test cattle for myself.
Anyway …getting back on track…brindle is a dominant gene (the loci has not been genetically located) and brindle requires the wild coat colour to be exhibited/shown. That is fine in and off itself but brindle can be displayed in varying amount: “some brindle animals show only a very limited expression of the pattern, being essentially red, and yet these animals would carry wild (=be wild in colour). …the brindle areas are restricted to the areas which would have been dark brown to black had the animal not possessed Br(brindle).” Basically what happens with the brindle gene is that it takes the black away from those areas and leaves the ‘red’. Unfortunately it takes the brown/black away unevenly and thus results in a stripe pattern.
But this does not end the problems with red… for you have some very interesting genes at the Agouti locus. These genes can play havoc with the wild coat colours by taking away certain colours and even modifying it in some instances so that it looks ‘black’. Of some interest to the ‘dun’ discussion as well as the red one is a dun gene which affects the red colouring but not the black and thus creates animals of ‘white’ colouring such as Chianina and ‘pale red’ such as Limousin. I did suggest to Carol that our Dexter dun gene might act in a similar fashion but in reverse in that it does not affect the red but only the black in coat colour. Therefore taking that assumption one step further: If you couple this with the wild factor you can assume that a wild animal homo for the dun gene may not display any dark points at all.
Thus you could hypothetically have any of the following phenotypes of a ‘red’ Dexter.
Wild => an animal similar in colour to Conhair Outlaw
Wild with Brindle=> an animal that looks significantly brindle all the way down to one that has only a few faint strips on the area of the eye and knees and back of hindquarters.
Wild and Dun=> an animal that looks ‘red’ [and whose nose would logicaly be ‘not black’]
Wild with Agouti=> light red with black face
Red (recessive)=> a red animal.
Red with Agouti=> an animal lighter than the one above.
And thus we have a ‘red’ which is ‘wholly’ unclear!
Anyway in closing I would like to say that I personally hold to the old Celtic saying:
“no red cow is a bad cow” and I include all the shades and patterns in that!
All the best to everyone ~K~