Yesterday while I was trying to find a good bull for my girls, I spoke to a lady who has quality stock. Most of her herd are descendants from SA genes or UK genes. She is very knowledgeable and has years of experience in the Dexter game. I shared with her the dilemma I had recently faced with the chrono gene. She felt that the test was not necessary and there was no problem in Queensland with this issue. Apparently NSW is a different story. As long as a short legged female is not mated with a short legged bull, you will have no problems but if you do that is when the so called bull dog calves will result. The more I search the internet the more I find about this test being done though. I still have mixed emotions about it and am still in doubt. When we bought the girls we had no intention of showing them. Our aim was to breed and that was it. Today I realise why a lot of people show there cattle. It adds so much value to your breeding stock. If you win first, second prize and have ribbons to prove it, well it just adds a bit more credibility to your stock I guess. Not to mention you are surrounded with Dexter owners who know all the in’s and outs of what is required for showing and breeding too. I still am not that eager to do the shows as it involves a lot of work. Halter trained cows, washing the animals and not to mention shaving and oiling and who knows what else then there is to do. The transporting and travelling all over the countryside to the various shows most weekends does not appeal to me although I imagine once the bug bites its addictive. Interestingly on the series Farmers life for me, Jimmy says the same about resulting medals adding value to the breeding stock. I guess at the close of the day if you are paying your bills from the sale of your calves then maximum dollars is the aim.
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