N.E Dexter Group by invitation from the
North of England Aberdeen Angus Calf Show
Thirsk Auction Mart 12th Nov 2011

Dexter Calf Show Results
Judge Mrs Carol Clarke

Class 1 ( 1 - 6 mths) No entries.

I was interested to see that they still had Eagleridge Lily who they purchased from me in 2002 as one of their foundation cattle. She is now 13yrs old and looked very well. Apart from the cattle they also have sheep which are a mixture of Suffolk ewes, a couple of Mashams and the rest are mules.  They run two Hampshire Down tups (Teddy & Thomas) and find they get good lambs from this combination  Christine has recently opened a farm shop on the 2nd and 4th weekend in the month selling their own beef and lamb. Quite a few of our members took some of her meat home to try. They are also do bed & breakfast for pigs and had recently got a new consignment of little pigs which drew quite a crowd as they where having a fine time with some large straw bales. I think I can safely say that everyone enjoyed the day and a big thank you to the Myhills & the Hodgson for inviting us all to look at their lovely Dexter’s.

If you would like to host a herd visit in 2012 please get in touch with the secretary.

Yorkshire Show 2011

The main winners where as follows.

Champion Darnbrooks Planetree Talos

Res Champion Emmersons Holmside Patience

Junior Champion Darnbrooks Planetree Hestia

Res Jun Champion Wiltshires Cosmos Oberon

Full results will be in the group’s next newsletter.

For the seconded time we held our calf show & social at Thirsk Auction Mart.
The show & social was reasonably well attended and I think I can say that everyone had an enjoyable day. Our judge Mr Paul Harrison took time to explain his placing’s and this was well received by all attending. This year we had two new exhibitors which was what our calf show is all about, Unfortunately some of our regulars where not able to attend for personal reasons, so our numbers where similar to last year. We are grateful to Graham Hunt who brought along some of his show team to encourage new members to have ago at showing, and one delighted lady handled one of Grahams to reserve Champion, so hopefully we might see her again with one of her own in the ring.
Mr & Mrs Medley owned the Champion calf and this was their first venture into the show ring. May this will be the first win of many.

Class 1 winning calf under 6mths S Sykes Hill Grove Fred
Class 2 winning calf under 12mths Mr & Mrs Medley Reedshaw Petal
Class 3 winning calf under 18mths Northbrook Red Roxy handled by Mrs Crossland
Champion Calf Reedshaw Petal
Reserve Champion Northbrook Red Roxy
Class 4 Cow accompany calf Sykes Hill Grove Jemma
Class 5 Heifer 18 -24 mths Northbrook heifer handled by member

A full breakdown of all the class placing’s will be in the next newsletter.

Champion Reedshaw Petal.

and

Reserve Champion Northbrook Red Roxy.

Mr Paul Dixon judged our photo competition this year and his Champion animal was Sheila Sykes’s cow Hill Grove Jemma with reserve going to Amy Harrison’s heifer Toadhole Candy. I was very disappointed with the response to the photo competition this year as I had only received photo’s from two members by the closing date.
With the judged booked and all the lovely rosettes ordered I had to chase round the members to submit photo’s, other wise we would not have had such a lovely display of photo’s for our judge. The photo’s are so popular with everyone attending the AGM and it is a great way to show case your herd as it is the animal not the photo which is judged.
The meal was once again excellent and I think everyone who attended had a very enjoyable day. As this was the third year we have been at the Millstones a vote was taken to decide if we should continue holding our AGM’s at this venue and all were in favour of returning in 2012.

I hope you enjoy the looking at some of the winning photo’s unfortunately several members took their 2nd prize photo’s home so I was not able to include them in the line up.

Ann Gates
Hon Sec.

Visit to the Welland Herd.
In September our Chairman, Carolann Raybould, kindly invited us all to visit her Welland Herd at Stallingborough near Grimsby. On a cold and very windy day around 30 members arrived to be greeted by Carolann and her husband Andrew with a huge spread of cakes, biscuits and a very welcome cup of tea in the shelter of a marquee.
We started by looking at a group of steers of different ages, a couple of which were nearly ready for slaughter. It was very useful to see a range of steers at different stages.

We then moved on to look at Carolann’s short herd, which Carolann is in the process of rebuilding after she lost all her stock during Foot & Mouth. They were a real credit to Carolann’s commitment to the Dexter breed.

In another shed we looked at the non-short herd. There was more of a range of types in this group and Carolann told us that it can take a long time to breed up the kind of stock that you want. Carolann explained that you can’t just put a good bull to a bad cow, or vice versa, and expect to get a good calf – both the sire and dam need to be of good quality. Ideally if you were looking to buy a cow you should try to look at as much of the family group and her offspring as possible, to get an idea of the quality of future calves.

We then returned to the marquee for a delicious lunch, including more tea and cake, and an opportunity to catch up on other members’ news.

After lunch we had a very informative discussion on ‘Milk Makes Meat’ and on ‘What to Look for in a Good Bull’, with live examples. In the first session, with one of Carolann’s lovely short cows as the model, we learnt about the importance of a good udder with illustrations of the following points:
• Rear udder height: a high rear udder attachment is thought to be an indicator of more udder capacity
• Rear udder width: also an indicator of udder capacity
• Udder depth: this is the most important physical trait of the udder – higher udder are related with less mastitis, less udder injury, and greater longevity
• Udder cleft: a deep cleft is an indicator or a strong suspensory ligament, which provides 60% of the udder’s support
• Teat placement: this is the second most important physical trait of the udder – teats should be centrally placed on each quarter
• Fore udder attachment: this is the third most important physical trait of the udder and a good strong fore attachment indicates greater longevity

We learnt that a good udder is important, not just for showing purposes, but is also extremely important for Dexter beef producers because a good udder producing a good amount of milk gives the calf the best start in life and produces the fantastic meat that Dexters are renowned for.

The next model to be brought out was Carolann’s non-short bull. We learnt that in order for cows to breed on a regular yearly cycle, the bull needs to be in top shape and condition. Using the live model, who was very accommodating, Carolann took us through the following vital points:
• Legs and feet
It is important that he has good legs and feet as before he performs his duty he has to constantly be able to keep up with the cows and check to see if they are ready to mate. It is very important that his legs and feet are correct as they will take all the weight when serving the cow. If the legs are too straight (‘posty’) it makes him predisposed to stifle problems, if they are bent too far underneath (‘sickle hocks’) it makes him predisposed to slipping.
• Back and loins
Must be strong to enable him to stay on top of the cow when serving
• Testicles and teats
Testicles must be a good size – small testicles produce less sperm – and both the same size – uneven testicles could mean deformed sperm. Teats must be of equal size and evenly spaced as this will affect the teats of his offspring.
• Changes in fertility
It is important to watch for changes as the bull gets older as these could mean fertility problems, including:
• Hair on head and neck growing longer and getting softer, and also hair sticking up on the poll
• Hair growing on testicles
• Spine sticking up proud of hips

Everybody we spoke to felt the day had been very worthwhile – it was an excellent combination of a social gathering and a great learning experience by combining the herd visit with the discussions afterwards. We would like to thank Carolann and Andrew Raybould very much for their kind hospitality, for sharing their knowledge, and for keeping us very well fed!

Caroline Littler and Richard Knott
Ferryboat Dexters
Thorganby, near York

On 22 August a group of about 20 of us from the Northern Dexter Group visited the Langthorne Buffalo Farm near Northallerton. It was a glorious sunny day and I for one was beginning to regret that I had forgotten my sunglasses and hat. Hard to imagine that now we are in the middle of a grey autumn in North Yorkshire! I needn’t have worried as the trailer for the tour was benched and covered so we were going to travel in some style compared to the open cart and straw bales I was expecting.

Once we were all loaded on the trailer our first stop was a paddock occupied by Pere David deer, emus and guanacos. The latter are ancestors to the domestic llama.

The highlight though was at the gate at the other side of the paddock. The sturdy gate was framed by a tall metal stanchion reminiscent of Jurassic park. Through the gate we could see several magnificent bison.

Once we were off again we turned a corner in the field to be faced with a seemingly enormous herd of buffalo! They were very calm with a similar temperament to Dexters. It was fascinating to see them close up and to also spy the odd Dexter amongst them. There were several wallows around which interestingly the buffalos had created themselves where feed had been put down.

The new field housed a very large herd of red deer. These were naturally shy but some came up to the feed thrown out of the back of the trailer. Paul explained that, to reduce stress, rather than herd them to the slaughter house he shot them individually at feeding time in the presence of a vet. The other deer seemed unperturbed by this and would carry on feeding regardless!

The next large herd was an equally fascinating group of wapiti, or elk, an American deer species. Paul keeps these as they have a slightly less strong or gamey flavour than the red deer. Some of these would come up and be fed by hand.

Finally we passed a flock of soay sheep and then went through a last field before completing a full circle. This last field housed Yaks and Dexters and a wonderful herd of miscellaneous and iron age pigs. These roamed free with their piglets with very little evidence of rooting due to the large area.

Once back at the farmhouse we were treated to really meaty buffalo burgers or iron age pork sausages before a tour of the abbatoir. This was very interesting and in a way quite reassuring. Paul said that he would slaughter and butcher an average Dexter steer for £275. Slaughter days are Tuesdays. For further information, contact Langthorne Buffalo Farm on 01609 776937

Pip Le Cornu

(A full version of the visit will be in the Autumn newsletter.)

Yorkshire Show Results July 2010.

COW CLASS

HEIFER OVER 2 UNDER 4 YRS OLD

1ST Plane Tree Iris (Mrs K Darnbrook)
2nd Plane Tree Penelope (Mrs K Darnbrook)
3rd Washingpool Windflower (Mr Cambridge)
4th Honeycombe Diamond (Mr Cambridge)

HEIFER OVER 1 UNDER 2 YRS OLD

1ST Plane Tree Galatea (Mrs K Darnbrook)
2ND Buryhill Anna Lucia (Miss Z Cambridge)
3rd Hill Grove Janine (Miss S Sykes)
4th Toadhole Candy (Miss S Sykes)

CALF UNDER 1 YR OLD

1st Cadwgan Rhubarb (Miss Z Cambridge)
2nd Plane Tree Eros (Mrs K Darnbrook)
3rd Buryhill Amelia (Miss Z Cambridge)

BULL OVER 1 YR OLD

1st Saltaire Pigment (Miss Z Cambridge)
2nd Plane Tree Talos (Mrs K Darnbrook)
3rd Buryhill Rory (Miss Z Cambridge)

CHAMPION PLANE TREE IRIS

RESERVE SALTAIRE PIGMENT

GROUP OF 3 ANIMALS

1st Miss S Sykes
2nd Mrs K Darnbrook
3rd Miss Z Cambridge

Calf Show Results June 2010 & Pictures

So helpful, as its always nice to know the judges reasons for placements both as an exhibitor or a spectator.

All the spectators had been given sheets so that they could place the animals themselves and then see how well they had judged the animals.

After the classes had been judged our judge and our chairlady took to the ring with some animals to explain the main points to look for when choosing cattle for showing. Many of these points are also relevant when choosing animals for breeding. We had an excellent display of raffle prizes so even if you didn’t win a rosette you had a chance of a nice raffle prize.

Overall, a very enjoyable day.

We did not have an official photographer however I gave my camera to a member who very kindly took the photo’s below. Thank you Pauline.
This year we had several youngsters showing calves.

The results for the classes are as follows

Class I Under 6mths

1st Nuttall’s Jordeth Honey
2nd Myhill’s Steer calf
3rd Nuttall’s Jordeth Ireen
4th Nuttall’s Jordeth Joe
5th Sykes Steer calf
6th Nuttall’s Jordeth Mandy