The Amazing Irish Dexters

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Just as important as the breed's economical eating habits is the fact that the dual-purpose animals do a good job of producing both meat and milk. An 18-month-old steer will dress out to a good 250-500 pounds of tasty beef, and a cow may yield 400-600 gallons of milk a year. (The fresh liquid contains a high—5%, or more—butterfat content, but tends to be "naturally homogenized" like goat's milk, so you'll need either a separator or some patience if you want to produce cream.)

Dexters are also extremely easy to work with. The low-slung cud-chewers have such gentle dispositions that some owners let their children caretake 'em . . . others find that a few strands of barbed wire fencing are enough to contain the placid critters . . . and lots of Dexter ranchers think of their animals as bovine companions!

You'd naturally assume that such positive traits would make Dexter cattle just about the breed for small landholders. And sure enough, most everyone who raises the animals is absolutely delighted with the petite-but-productive beasts. So why, then, haven't Dexters become farmstead regulars? Why don't you see the critters all over our nation's pastures? The reason, of course, is that along with all the good news about the hardy cows, there is also some bad news.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY

The most "infamous" drawback of the Irish Dexter is the breed's genetic "bulldog trait". This birth defect (chondrodystrophia fetalis) is fatal to any fetus that inherits it. The mother is not affected, but her unborn calf—which has a bulldoglike pushed-in nose and extremely short legs—is spontaneously aborted sometime between the second and eighth months of pregnancy.

The inherited trait is carried by a recessive gene, so while only a moderate percentage of Dexter calves are "bulldogs", the potential for the defect is often handed down by seemingly healthy specimens.

In theory, one quarter of Dexter offspring bred from parents who carry the trait should not survive. Fortunately, some other—and not yet completely understood—genetic factors modify the occurrence of this calamity so that, in real life, less than one quarter of the offspring are bulldogs. (Incidentally, other cattle can be afflicted with chondrodystrophia fetalis . . . so never risk spreading the bulldog trait by mating a Dexter with an animal of another breed.)

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print