Peanut, a Grade A cow

[genebo]

Well, Peanut would be almost the same as a Grade A cow had she been bred through the English Upgrade registry.

Her grandmother was 1/2 Hereford and 1/2 Charolais. She was bred to a registered Dexter bull, to produce Ruffles.

Ruffles could have been a Grade C cow (1/2 Dexter) in the Upgrade registry. She was a very nice cow, with a generous udder for her size. She was sold to a family that milked their small cows and sold the milk by "milk shares". People would buy a share of a cow, which entitled then to a share of the milk. You can't sell raw milk directly in Virginia.

Ruffles met Ivanhoe, a lovely rascal of a registered Dexter bull. He was gorgeous and between them they made a number of pretty calves. The females would have qualified to be Grade B cows on the Upgrade registry. One of these offspring produced Peanut.

This is where Peanut's ancestry deviates from the English Upgrade requirements. She would have had to be sired by a fullblooded Dexter bull in order to upgrade to Grade A. Instead, she was bred by Brian, an unregistered bull that is 3/4 Dexter and 1/4 Shorthorn. He is a beautiful bull, one you could be proud to own, but he wasn't a fullblooded Dexter. That's what would have kept Peanut from being a proper upgrade cow.

Yet Peanut is the most remarkable cow I have ever seen. She is the same size as her Dexter ancestors, with an udder that belongs on a Holstein! On her first lactation, she was milked dry one time, just to see how much she could give. They got 6 gallons from her! One milking!

A couple of months ago, she was dry, and Nat invited me to come back after she freshened to see her udder at full size. I went yesterday.

It turns out that Peanut was in a pasture away from the house when it was close to her calving time. They moved her into the pasture close to the house so they could watch her. She didn't look right, though. They decided that she had already had the calf and it was trapped in the other pasture. They turned her back into the other pasture and the whole family searched, but they never found the calf.

So, they brought Peanut back near the house, where they keep the milking cows and goats. Nat started milking her, but he had no storage to hold that much milk. He took 2 gallons from her each morning, then turned her out to graze. Her udder shrunk. By the time I got there yesterday, Nat said it was about 1/3 of it's maximum size. That is the size it has in the pictures that follow. Nat said he was still taking 2 gallons from her every morning, and there is plenty left.

Here is Peanut with Nat:

This is Peanut with Nat and a Jersey cow, for size comparison:

Peanut in profile:

A closer view of Peanut's udder:

Here's a link to the album of pictures, where you can also see Ruffles, her grandmother:

s270.photobucket.com/user/genebo16/library/Ruffles%20and%20Binkie?sort=3&page=1

The Dexter influence is easily seen in Peanut. Her size, more than anything. Dexter and Shorthorn are the only breeds in her background that are noted for their dairy capabilities. Hereford and Charolais are definitely beef breeds. It must have been a perfect storm of Dexter and Shorthorn genes that produced such a huge udder on a hybrid.

And just think: she was sooo close to being qualified to be a Grade A cow if she had lived in England. If Brian had been fullblooded instead of 3/4, you could breed her to a registered Dexter bull and register her daughters as Dexters over there. Not here, though. Here she's just a crossbred cow, coincidentally called a grade cow at the livestock auctions.

I don't know where the polled genes came from in Ruffles' line. By the time she was born, both Hereford and Charolais had been crossed to get polled versions. It would be interesting, knowing the exact line of her ancestry, to have a polled test done on Peanut to see if she got the Angus or the Friezian version of polled.

[blaine]

Nice story but that udder is nothing to write home about on either a registered or a cross. In fact is is extraordinarily bad. The production is nice but with that structure not viable for the short term leave be the long term.

Blaine

[tarsallat]

nice cow, shame about the udder. Can't be a Dexter with all of that white.

[genebo]

Y'all got my point, though.

In spite of all her Dexter ancestry, she's not a Dexter. Nor will she ever be, and neither will her descendants be.

Her size has persisted through the generations. That part of her Dexter heritage is quite strong. Yet her polledness has persisted just as strongly. A DNA test will reveal that she still has the same polled gene that her grandmother has, and may have it doubled. Her grandmother was heterozygous polled. Peanut hasn't been tested.

There are those who would praise her milk producing capabilities above all else. 6 gallons beats any Dexter I've ever heard of before. But that is out of a cow that is NOT a Dexter and most likely owes her high production to her non-Dexter ancestors.

It behooves us as responsible guardians and keepers of the Dexter breed to insure that it is preserved.

Peanut is a good producer in her dairy situation, but the average family with a small landholding would be hard pressed to feed her and make use of the milk. You can't beat a traditional dual purpose Dexter for that family.

[tarsallat]

Don't get your point. she doesn't look anything like a Dexter. She may be small buts that's about it folks. She looks like a cross bred cow. Just because something is small doesn't make it look like a dexter. Unless of course that's what YOUR dexters look like.

[genebo]

Watch your tongue. There's no need to get snippy and try to insult my Dexters.

Let me make my point in a different way. This cow could never be considered to be a Dexter in North America, for none of the North American Dexter registries rules permit registering outcrossed animals. There is no upgrade program here. Yet this same cow nearly qualifies to have her offspring registered as Dexters in other countries.

In fact, the rules for upgrading in England have been so loosely applied that there have been a noteworthy few that were registered as Dexters that had less qualifications than Peanut has.

The traditional Dexter has a unique place in the life of a farm family with small acreage. We need to protect and preserve our magnificant cattle and guard against them becoming despoiled.

That's not very hard to do. If you are made aware of a practice that is detrimental to the preservation of the breed, don't engage in that practice. If offered a traditional Dexter or one that was derived from dubious background, choose the traditional Dexter. Select a bull to breed your Dexter cows that well represents the breed. Choose cows that meet all the breed standards, as well as the registration requirements.

None of that needs to cost you any money. It will pay you, with a satisfaction that you have done a good and wonderful thing.

Why not start a thread that shows what an udder on a good, traditional dual purpose Dexter looks like? Lots of people would like to see that. Post some of your Dexters and I'll post some of mine on your thread, to help you get it started.

[lonecowhand]

Genebo,
Thanks for sharing, I think most of us who read your post get your point; that Peanut, while obviously not very much Dexter, could be could be registered as one in a country with lower standards for the breed.

I agree the Breed Standards should be kept high (and traditional) as possible.

Peanut's cute though, and even though her udder may be less than perfect, it sure is ponderous and productive, and hard to beat if you needed A LOT of milk. Nat's a lucky fellow to have her.

Bill in California