Post by jamshundred on Jun 28, 2014 20:19:29 GMT
Recently I was contacted by a Dexter owner who inquired about the color dun and was it a color in the beginning. I wrote an article on my Facebook historical page answering her question in depth about the dun color in Dexters. Many people have not seen it . . . the facebook pages come and go so fast. I will place the information here since it is historical information.
Let's start with the color dun. Most breeders think it an original color. There is NO record of this as the early herd books required the animals to be either red or black . ... but it has been traced as far back as the Grinstead Herd in England. Grinstead was a premier herd that had foundation animals in the Irish registry.
There has been speculation from England that the color was introgressed with an outbreeding. During early herd book research I saw a lot of animals with names that one would mentally associate with tan or brown. ( Sandy is a good example). I don't know about the early herds and I don't know about when it was first seen and likely culled in England ( or Ireland) but I have researched the dun color in America extensively.
There was a cow in the original imports/US registrations that was listed as BROWN. Most old timers believe there was early dun in the US herd and use this animal as an example. There are a couple of breeders who have insisted the same thing. That is NOT the case! This cow was Belle of Hempstead. I have traced each of her descendents. Nothing but black animals. It is obvious to me. . . . based on her pedigree that she likely carried red and that gave the brown tint to her coat that one sees on some red animals. Copper defiiciency will cause this as well. . . . or just a rough coat and poor nutrition coming off winter. The registration was in error because BELLE OF HEMPSTEAD was a BLACK cow.
I knew she had to be. . . . based on extensive pedigree research but I had yet to uncover evidence to prove it. Finally, a couple years after researching these lines while checking early pedigrees for the Legacy online pedigree site I found what I needed to PROVE she was black. There is actually a photo of her and she is identified with two of her herdmates in an early photo in an ADCA herdbook.
Dun animals in America were originally registered as red. .. .until Mrs. Rutherford of the Woodmagic herd visited the US and told breeders they had DUN cattle not RED. So where did they come from?
A couple of them descended from imports to the US in the 1950's, which included a Grinstead bull. ( Grinstead Ambassador RM1540) I've found only a couple that were known to actually be dun and both trace to these imports. So the first dun cattle came from England in the 1950's.
(A side note here. . . . because it dovetails with my example above. The dam of Grinstead Ambassador was named Elysian Conqueror's Amber 2nd. She was registered as a black cow, but her dam was Ickwell Amber EF5386 registered as a red cow. Ickwell Amber's sire was a Grinstead bull. Another interesting name on the the otherside of the pedigree. The granddam of Grinstead Ambassador was Sparr Penny).
In 1978 dun cattle from the Woodmagic herd were imported to Canada and established the Cranworth herd. Cattle from the Cranworth herd were exported to the US and soon the number of duns began to grow.
So, while I cannot say whether dun came into the breed very early in the herdbooks of Ireland or England, I do believe it was tightly connected to the Grinstead lines. I can find no trace of it in America until the 1950 imports which brought in animals with the same herd ancestors.
Let's start with the color dun. Most breeders think it an original color. There is NO record of this as the early herd books required the animals to be either red or black . ... but it has been traced as far back as the Grinstead Herd in England. Grinstead was a premier herd that had foundation animals in the Irish registry.
There has been speculation from England that the color was introgressed with an outbreeding. During early herd book research I saw a lot of animals with names that one would mentally associate with tan or brown. ( Sandy is a good example). I don't know about the early herds and I don't know about when it was first seen and likely culled in England ( or Ireland) but I have researched the dun color in America extensively.
There was a cow in the original imports/US registrations that was listed as BROWN. Most old timers believe there was early dun in the US herd and use this animal as an example. There are a couple of breeders who have insisted the same thing. That is NOT the case! This cow was Belle of Hempstead. I have traced each of her descendents. Nothing but black animals. It is obvious to me. . . . based on her pedigree that she likely carried red and that gave the brown tint to her coat that one sees on some red animals. Copper defiiciency will cause this as well. . . . or just a rough coat and poor nutrition coming off winter. The registration was in error because BELLE OF HEMPSTEAD was a BLACK cow.
I knew she had to be. . . . based on extensive pedigree research but I had yet to uncover evidence to prove it. Finally, a couple years after researching these lines while checking early pedigrees for the Legacy online pedigree site I found what I needed to PROVE she was black. There is actually a photo of her and she is identified with two of her herdmates in an early photo in an ADCA herdbook.
Dun animals in America were originally registered as red. .. .until Mrs. Rutherford of the Woodmagic herd visited the US and told breeders they had DUN cattle not RED. So where did they come from?
A couple of them descended from imports to the US in the 1950's, which included a Grinstead bull. ( Grinstead Ambassador RM1540) I've found only a couple that were known to actually be dun and both trace to these imports. So the first dun cattle came from England in the 1950's.
(A side note here. . . . because it dovetails with my example above. The dam of Grinstead Ambassador was named Elysian Conqueror's Amber 2nd. She was registered as a black cow, but her dam was Ickwell Amber EF5386 registered as a red cow. Ickwell Amber's sire was a Grinstead bull. Another interesting name on the the otherside of the pedigree. The granddam of Grinstead Ambassador was Sparr Penny).
In 1978 dun cattle from the Woodmagic herd were imported to Canada and established the Cranworth herd. Cattle from the Cranworth herd were exported to the US and soon the number of duns began to grow.
So, while I cannot say whether dun came into the breed very early in the herdbooks of Ireland or England, I do believe it was tightly connected to the Grinstead lines. I can find no trace of it in America until the 1950 imports which brought in animals with the same herd ancestors.