FACTS
- Dexters come in three colours
RED DUN BLACK - Dexter bulls are excellent used over maiden heifers to produce low birth weight live calves
- Commercial mainstream cattle breeders are now using Dexter bulls for their easy calving attributes.
TIP
Hold your cursor over the pictures to see the name of the animal or click on the picture to enlarge the photo!!
Hold your cursor over the pictures to see the name of the animal or click on the picture to enlarge the photo!!
Our Bulls
Rawlings Blueprint
As the polled gene is dominant and so only requires it to be passed on from one parent you can see why we are so excited to have several bulls of different bloodlines with which to introduce this much desired trait into our whole herd.
Rawlings Blueprint (above) DOB 24/09/06 has served over 90 cows and has given us the greatest herd improvement in terms of depth, volume and width consistently from all types of females. He is tested homozygous (double) polled which confirms what we have always suspected, and he will only produced polled calves. A limited number of semen shares are available in Blueprint, with his genetics already being sold to Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria, but be quick to get these quality polled red bloodlines. Blueprint's daughters in milk have all classified highly with several gaining a VG rating which shows the consistency he is producing and which we are striving to achieve. Rawlings Delta Blue has classified VG87 , we are very pleased with her score, particularly the improvement in legs and feet, and her dual purpose characterisitics. Blueprint has classified VG88 in October 2012, up two points on his previous score, which pleases us greatly. which shows the consistency he is producing and which we are striving to achieve.
Rawlings ET (below right) who has very different genetics to the rest of our herd on his dam's side has also tested homozygous polled. Again we were fairly certain of his polled status as at 3 years he has no signs of scurs and all of his calves have also been polled. It is an enviable position to be in with two homozygous polled bulls, and ensures that polled progeny are only ever one generation away.
Rawlings Blueprint (above) DOB 24/09/06 has served over 90 cows and has given us the greatest herd improvement in terms of depth, volume and width consistently from all types of females. He is tested homozygous (double) polled which confirms what we have always suspected, and he will only produced polled calves. A limited number of semen shares are available in Blueprint, with his genetics already being sold to Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria, but be quick to get these quality polled red bloodlines. Blueprint's daughters in milk have all classified highly with several gaining a VG rating which shows the consistency he is producing and which we are striving to achieve. Rawlings Delta Blue has classified VG87 , we are very pleased with her score, particularly the improvement in legs and feet, and her dual purpose characterisitics. Blueprint has classified VG88 in October 2012, up two points on his previous score, which pleases us greatly. which shows the consistency he is producing and which we are striving to achieve.
Rawlings ET (below right) who has very different genetics to the rest of our herd on his dam's side has also tested homozygous polled. Again we were fairly certain of his polled status as at 3 years he has no signs of scurs and all of his calves have also been polled. It is an enviable position to be in with two homozygous polled bulls, and ensures that polled progeny are only ever one generation away.
And then there were three
Rawlings Grand Design
While testing the animals for polling, which included all of those which had two polled parents, it was discovered that Rawlings Grand Design is homozygous polled as well. Boy oh Boy!!, three homozygous polled live bulls in our herd. While Grand Design is a son of ET, he has outstanding genetics on his dam's side in terms of udder structure. Something which we hope will be passed onto his daughters. Time will tell.
But wait there's more
One of our young bulls Kirup Park Heir Apparent has also tested homozygous polled. He is a young red bull sired by Rawlings Blueprint and out of Kirup Park Dame Ruby. This will give us some difference in the dam's bloodlines to add further genetic diversity while guarantees polled calves. He is only a baby yet, being recently weaned, but he does show some promise and will be used over some of the different bloodlines in the Kirup Park herd.
Using any of our four homozygous polled live bulls as back up for any AI we do will guarantee that all of our calves are polled.
Using any of our four homozygous polled live bulls as back up for any AI we do will guarantee that all of our calves are polled.
New Genetics by AI from Two New Bulls
Baunatal Magic Merlin
DOB 03/04/06
We have been fortunate to acquire semen from Baunatal Dexter Stud for two of their heterozygous polled bulls Baunatal Kenny O'Shea and Baunatal Magic Merlin. These two bulls will add diversity of genetics to our herd while building on our polled lines. They are smaller style bulls, with great length, good legs and feet, and outstanding temperaments. Their first calves born in 2012 are looking very promising, with one polled bull by Merlin and one heifer by Kenny who I believe to be homozygous polled, are outstanding.
Baunatal Kenny O'Shea
DOB 31/03/04
Imported American Semen
We have purchased some elite polled gentics from three American bulls that I have been admiring for some time, who are claimed to be homozygous polled, two red and one dun. These bulls have similar dairy attributes as our own herd so our udder structure should not be compromised, while we are hoping to improve legs and feet.
Thanks to Gabriella Nanci for entrusting us with her genetics which we are sure will compliment very much our lines here in Australia and will add some polled genetic diversity to the Australian herd.
Again these genetics will be inseminated into our best polled cows to hopefully breed an outcross homozygous polled bull which will continue the structural improvement to our Dexters.
Thanks to Gabriella Nanci for entrusting us with her genetics which we are sure will compliment very much our lines here in Australia and will add some polled genetic diversity to the Australian herd.
Again these genetics will be inseminated into our best polled cows to hopefully breed an outcross homozygous polled bull which will continue the structural improvement to our Dexters.
Belle Fourche Lasair
