Gearld Fry on herd purity

[Deleted]

Hi Genebo

Very interesting article.

I was pleased to read his comment about "Y chromosone must be concentrated for herd bulls to put value in the next generation"
Its a view I share with the writer.

I was also pleased to read "Choosing the highest quality bull that will enhance the traits you are looking for on your farm"
I placed emphasis on the _traits you are looking for_. I think this is really important too.

We have just 'evaluated' our girls and are still playing around with 3 of them as to which of our boys would be the most suitably compatible and I like his plan for assessment.

Have you discovered any more writings from him on this matter?

I will go search now for a few minutes before getting into it for the day

Cheers
Donna

[cddexter]

donna, you might like to check out supergene. Peter is a Tassian, lives just down the road from Margaret Rawlings, and Peter Little has had him involved in Dexters through DCAI. I seem to remember Peter got Dexters involved in the paddock to palate testing a few years ago and we did really well. His philosophy is very similar to Fry's but from the other side. he believes consistency is female related, so it's important to pick the bull from the best female (not start with the male as Fry does). I owe a lot of my success in weeding out inferior animals to Peter, and all my stock is now in the 90's. cheers, c.

[Deleted]

Aug 23, 2013 9:39:44 GMT -5 cddexter said:

donna, you might like to check out supergene. Peter is a Tassian, lives just down the road from Margaret Rawlings, and Peter Little has had him involved in Dexters through DCAI. I seem to remember Peter got Dexters involved in the paddock to palate testing a few years ago and we did really well. His philosophy is very similar to Fry's but from the other side. he believes consistency is female related, so it's important to pick the bull from the best female (not start with the male as Fry does). I owe a lot of my success in weeding out inferior animals to Peter, and all my stock is now in the 90's. cheers, c.

Hi C, this is not a unique idea as we heard about the 'then' theory of females for consistency and type when we had our dogs.
I had also seen a similar program which proved extremely successful after 14 years with Herefords. And that program is still going from strength to strength.

We cant fluidly converse in Dexter history and bloodlines but genetics is not a stranger or a mystery, and we had decided to establish our foundation herd based on that very scenario.

Out of our 16 girls, 13 are closely or near immediately related. The other 3 are closely related but not to the 13 providing another lineage to work with, as well as a “just in case”.
We also own the dams of our bulls and the sires’ of 3.

We know it will be a “sink or swim” adventure but it’s one we always planned embarking on.

So thank you C for another avenue of information. We are very interested in information and hearing experiences based on this view point.

Cheers
Donna

[rawlingsdexter]

Hi Donna

I have used the Peter Chilcott method of assessment for many years, selecting bulls based on their female lines. That is how we have such a consistent line of females, it was Peter who suggested the picture on our website of the four red females lined up, he couldn't believe that we could have that many females of the same quality. Since then I could add another 6 to the line up , all sired by the same bull that have the same consistency.

Peter did a Field Day at our place in 2012 and was very complimentary of the cattle, giving all those he saw his highest rating. It was most satisfying after using his assessment methods for close to 15 years.

Let me know if you want any further information, I have some at home I can send you when I get back later this week.

My other advise is when you get a bull that produces what you want, use him until you cannot use him any further, and the best way to increase the females influence is to use grandson over grandmother. Takes a while to get to this point but several of our best females were bred this way.

Marg

[Deleted]

Good morning Marg

Yes please on the more information. I will PM you my email address – thank you.

We are at the starting gates with our bulls. We have one who has now sired only a handful but it’s clear in all that he is the sire, so we are very pleased with that to date. He has one more to come for this season.
The other young bulls are yet to prove themselves.

And thank you for your advice and confirmation in what we were thinking re using a bull that will produce what we want with our females.

We have a grandson to our favourite girl, sired by our proven boy – we are just waiting on the grandson’s DNA from UCD before registering him.

We are also very pleased with fav girl’s daughters and are now closely watching number four who arrived only last week.

If grandson’s DNA comes back as expected, he is planned to go to maternal grandmother (fav girl), maternal aunty, mother and paternal aunty who also happens to be his paternal grandmother.

2014 could be a very very good Dexter year – or one we will choose to forget 

[Deleted]

Hi Genebo

There is an article off that link about Cattle health where it elaborates on excessive or wrong use of additives, minerals etc.

I know it mostly wont relate to anywhere else but in Australia but I was given a book soon after buying the farm called “Back from the Brink” by Peter Andrews.

While the book is based on looking after the land, there is a chapter on the management of livestock and how his (or his father’s…….cant recall now) sheep on lush pasture were not doing as well as sheep on the outback property and the conclusions Peter came too in his assessment and then years of knowledge and experiences. It was very interesting reading and much food for thought in the book.

Cheers
Donna