robin walker wrote:Sorry guys , nobody seems to be getting the point , why should we accept silly prices for pure Dexter cattle , ok everyone is going for the cross the easy way out , why should we have to cross to get a decent price . Some have said more pedigree Dexter breeders should be do this , why , why fool your selves by saying your breeding Dexters when you are actually breeding another animal , it is what I believe you call a Dangus , if you want big carcasses why not go the whole hog and change to a larger breed .
A Dexter with a Dexter is a Dexter , a Dexter with any cross is anything but .
You have stated putting a Dexter X Angus through the ring makes silly money but an Angus X Dexter makes 3to 4 times as much , I bet the butcher buying that animal advertises he is selling the Dexter and not the Angus , why because the word Dexter means a quality rarer animal .
I know exactly where you are coming from Robin, from the early days when I first started keeping cattle I liked the Dexter, the small cow, and I have enjoyed breeding them pure. However, I now appreciate the need for crossing to ensure the breed becomes a commercial animal and doesn't remain a curosity that will surely die out if it doesn't have a viable future.
If you are crossing you are not selling out, quite the opposite; you are actually strengthening the core breed as you are creating demand for them. A farmer who crosses all his Dexters will always need to buy in new dams as no crossbreed breeds its own replacements. Think of the sucess of the North of England Mule sheep - the Swaledale hasn't been killed off by it, as it surely would if it relied entirely upon purebred offspring. Good quality Swaledales have to be bred pure to keep providing the mule mothers.
The very best Dexters are still kept for breeding pure and the not so good ones have more of a value than either breeding more not-so-good pure Dexters or beefing them. When more farmers see the potential there is for a cow that is cheap to keep & produces a saleable calf that doesn't need to be sold direct or to have a relationship with a good butcher to turn a profit, then the demand for good cows will go up even higher than it is now. Therefore good cows will make more money than they do now, producing mediocre cows for the crossing market at a price equal or better than good cows are fetching now, and overall both the quality and number of purebred Dexters will increase.
Crosses will not take the job that Dexters are doing, they will take the job that purebred Dexters fail to achieve and as a consequence create jobs for more purebred Dexters. If the Dexter can build that reputation (as it is doing - when I got my first Dexters they were considered a joke by most 'commercial' [for want of a better word] farmers, these days I tell people I have Dexters and there's more chance of them being respectful of the breed) then people will start to put Dexter on the passport and let the appearance show what the father is.
One of the biggest issues, in my opinion, with raising that Dexter profile is the chondrodysplasia gene defect. You mention a Dexter to any farmer or butcher not associated with the breed and their immediate first thought will be of a tiny short legged animal they saw at a show once. The Dexter is still a small, compact, efficient cow without the short gene defect. It would be very easy to breed it out and still have a Dexter - I don't think we should breed Dexters ever bigger (as you say, you may as well just get a big breed if you want big cattle) but it is not the short leg that defines the Dexter as a good animal. The strength of a breed relies upon consistency that you just don't get with breeding shorts, as at best it's only ever going to be 50/50.
The thing that does define the Dexter, in my opinion, is the ability to produce excellent quality, healthy beef from cheap forages alone. While there is a definite market for good quality beef it is not sufficiently large to justify breeding significantly more Dexters, hence why the price for breeding stock is so low. However, by taking advantage of the price being so low and putting them to a terminal sire you are simulatenously ensuring a better price for pure Dexter beef and for pure Dexter breeders, while putting beef into the market at the expense of other maternal breeds, not the Dexter.
If it says Angus on the passport the butcher will likely be selling it as Angus, just as he would a dairy bred Angus cross. It annoys me a bit too but that's the way it is. He won't be selling it as Dexter though, as there is no proof on the passport that it is a Dexter, unless you look back and cross-reference the dam's eartag number. Ask the man on the street and chances are he's heard of Angus - as Dom says, most supermarkets stock Angus beef, and so do Burger King. They are far less likely to know what Dexter is - more likely they'll think of the US TV show or Colin Dexter of Morse fame.
ETA - cross-posted; I see we concur on the short leg!