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"History of the Dexter Breed in Canada" Part I
by Carol Davidson, 2006
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Carol Davidson is a Canadian Dexter breeder with a keen interest in the history of the breed. She presented a paper to the Second World Congress on Dexter Cattle, held in Australia in 2002, on research on the dun gene in Dexters. Carol is also an active contributor to Dexter discussion boards on the Internet. A version of the following article could have been found on the Internet as part of the CDCA site for a time up until February 2005. It disappeared when this site was restructured in late 2005. Another earlier version of this article can be found in the first issue of the "International Dexter" (September 2002). Thanks to Carol for supplying the article and for permission to include it on this website. It is posted in two parts.
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In December of 1899, the Farmer’s Advocate carried an article on Dexter-Kerry cattle recently imported by Senator George Alexander Drummond, of Montreal.
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“Senator Drummond, whose ambition is only satisfied by possession of the best of whatever class of stock he fancies, selected and imported at a very high price, for the head of his herd of Dexters, the phenomenal young bull, Bantam, bred by His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, winner of first prize and the championship of the breed at the Royal Agricultural Society Show at Manchester. With this bull, now three years old, came four handsome young cows in calf, namely, Kathleen, Gloria, Toffy, and Trilby, which have since produced two sets of calves, which gives the nucleus of a high-class herd.”
by Carol Davidson, 2006
:
Carol Davidson is a Canadian Dexter breeder with a keen interest in the history of the breed. She presented a paper to the Second World Congress on Dexter Cattle, held in Australia in 2002, on research on the dun gene in Dexters. Carol is also an active contributor to Dexter discussion boards on the Internet. A version of the following article could have been found on the Internet as part of the CDCA site for a time up until February 2005. It disappeared when this site was restructured in late 2005. Another earlier version of this article can be found in the first issue of the "International Dexter" (September 2002). Thanks to Carol for supplying the article and for permission to include it on this website. It is posted in two parts.
:
In December of 1899, the Farmer’s Advocate carried an article on Dexter-Kerry cattle recently imported by Senator George Alexander Drummond, of Montreal.
:
“Senator Drummond, whose ambition is only satisfied by possession of the best of whatever class of stock he fancies, selected and imported at a very high price, for the head of his herd of Dexters, the phenomenal young bull, Bantam, bred by His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, winner of first prize and the championship of the breed at the Royal Agricultural Society Show at Manchester. With this bull, now three years old, came four handsome young cows in calf, namely, Kathleen, Gloria, Toffy, and Trilby, which have since produced two sets of calves, which gives the nucleus of a high-class herd.”
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Dexter bull Bantam, bred by Prince of Wales and imported to Canada by Senator Drummond. :
Drummond was an important figure in turn-of-the-Century Canada. A Senator and Vice (1887) and then President (1905) of Canada’s first chartered bank, the Bank of Montreal, he died in 1910 at 81 years of age. The fate of his Dexters is unknown.
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In Volume XVII (1916) of The English Kerry and Dexter Cattle Society Herd Book, eleven La Mancha animals were noted as having been exported to the Vancouver Exhibition Association, British Columbia, in 1908. They were two bulls, Flummerfelt and Malahide, and nine cows, Balsam, Fraulein, Girl, Go Go, Luck, May, Pet, Wee Mite and Wee Thing.
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In Canada, the animals and offspring were registered with the American Kerry and Dexter Cattle Association, listed to three owners. John Lawson, the founder of West Vancouver, kept his Dexters at Hollyburn Farm, after which the nearby mountain, ski resort and regional park are named. H. Rolson was General Manager of the Vancouver Exhibition Association (the forerunner of the second largest agricultural showcase in Canada), and a prominent racehorse breeder. The third owner was W. J. Taylor, a King's Council and solicitor for the City of Victoria on Vancouver Island. Mr. Taylor had a 600-acre farm north of Victoria, his own racetrack, and was a leading breeder of racehorses in western North America. The fate of all the La Mancha Dexters is unknown.
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(Things go in circles: there is still a racetrack at the site, now known as Sandown Park, and a recent owner of Sandown Park also kept a few Dexters. In his case, the cows were resold, and the bull ended up as part of a rodeo routine touring western Canada.)
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In the late 1940s, two English Fyfield cows were imported to British Columbia, and ended up on a remote farm on the west coast of Vancouver Island, along with specially imported Highland cattle and a rare breed of Scottish sheep (breed name lost). The owner died, and the widow was forced into bankruptcy. The livestock was disbursed, with one Dexter going to auction, but the other was ‘saved’ by the livestock hauler who kept her as a pet until her death at close to 20 years.
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Between 1958 and 1966, W.O. Carcaud of Montreal, vice-president of a pharmaceutical company, double registered his imported American Dexters in the U.S. and Canada. These Dexters were from the Peerless herd, descended directly from the original American imports from Ireland around 1910. They were reportedly sold back into the U.S., but their registrations were never transferred, and there is no record of them from then on.
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All these early Dexters would have been dwarfs, and likely went the way of many novelty livestock when the owner’s interest waned: outcrossed or slaughtered.
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In 1978, Doris and Marshall Crowe, with three friends, imported four heifers from Beryl Rutherford’s Woodmagic herd in England and a bull from the U.S. These they kept on their 400-acre Rideau River farm retreat outside Ottawa. They named their new herd Cranworth, after the name of the (then defunct) nearby crossroads, Cranworth Corners. The following year, six heifers from the American Klein-Hydrif herd were added, and the Crowes and a young university student herdsman, Eric Lawlor, imported six more Woodmagic heifers and a bull.
Drummond was an important figure in turn-of-the-Century Canada. A Senator and Vice (1887) and then President (1905) of Canada’s first chartered bank, the Bank of Montreal, he died in 1910 at 81 years of age. The fate of his Dexters is unknown.
:
In Volume XVII (1916) of The English Kerry and Dexter Cattle Society Herd Book, eleven La Mancha animals were noted as having been exported to the Vancouver Exhibition Association, British Columbia, in 1908. They were two bulls, Flummerfelt and Malahide, and nine cows, Balsam, Fraulein, Girl, Go Go, Luck, May, Pet, Wee Mite and Wee Thing.
:
In Canada, the animals and offspring were registered with the American Kerry and Dexter Cattle Association, listed to three owners. John Lawson, the founder of West Vancouver, kept his Dexters at Hollyburn Farm, after which the nearby mountain, ski resort and regional park are named. H. Rolson was General Manager of the Vancouver Exhibition Association (the forerunner of the second largest agricultural showcase in Canada), and a prominent racehorse breeder. The third owner was W. J. Taylor, a King's Council and solicitor for the City of Victoria on Vancouver Island. Mr. Taylor had a 600-acre farm north of Victoria, his own racetrack, and was a leading breeder of racehorses in western North America. The fate of all the La Mancha Dexters is unknown.
:
(Things go in circles: there is still a racetrack at the site, now known as Sandown Park, and a recent owner of Sandown Park also kept a few Dexters. In his case, the cows were resold, and the bull ended up as part of a rodeo routine touring western Canada.)
:
In the late 1940s, two English Fyfield cows were imported to British Columbia, and ended up on a remote farm on the west coast of Vancouver Island, along with specially imported Highland cattle and a rare breed of Scottish sheep (breed name lost). The owner died, and the widow was forced into bankruptcy. The livestock was disbursed, with one Dexter going to auction, but the other was ‘saved’ by the livestock hauler who kept her as a pet until her death at close to 20 years.
:
Between 1958 and 1966, W.O. Carcaud of Montreal, vice-president of a pharmaceutical company, double registered his imported American Dexters in the U.S. and Canada. These Dexters were from the Peerless herd, descended directly from the original American imports from Ireland around 1910. They were reportedly sold back into the U.S., but their registrations were never transferred, and there is no record of them from then on.
:
All these early Dexters would have been dwarfs, and likely went the way of many novelty livestock when the owner’s interest waned: outcrossed or slaughtered.
:
In 1978, Doris and Marshall Crowe, with three friends, imported four heifers from Beryl Rutherford’s Woodmagic herd in England and a bull from the U.S. These they kept on their 400-acre Rideau River farm retreat outside Ottawa. They named their new herd Cranworth, after the name of the (then defunct) nearby crossroads, Cranworth Corners. The following year, six heifers from the American Klein-Hydrif herd were added, and the Crowes and a young university student herdsman, Eric Lawlor, imported six more Woodmagic heifers and a bull.
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Woodmagic Plover, imported from England in 1978
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According to George Klein, “Doris purchased our heifer calves to start her herd. We had at the same time a good-looking bull calf. She did not take him as she was going to England for a bull. Six weeks later she called and said nothing in England looked as good as our bull calf and she would take him. Tooooo late! He had been steered.” The Crowes, and their friends, the Higgins (grandson of the Irish O’Higgins who created a ‘kingdom’ for himself in Argentina in the 1800s), became the major forces behind the Dexter revival in Canada.
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By 1983, the Crowes had sold or traded a number of animals with Jim Johnson, an established breeder in the U.S. and the (then) current President of the American Dexter association. This move added O’Briar Hill genetics into their herd, as well as spreading Woodmagic breeding south of the border.
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Eric Lawlor collected semen from his bull, Aldebaran Priapus, making Priapus the first Canadian Dexter AI bull. Shortly thereafter, Priapus’ sire, Trillium Cluny, was collected and a son, Trillium Chabotte, was also collected (by a Belgian Blue breeder who learned of a need for Dexter semen in Australia, and capitalized on the knowledge).
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In 1984, two cows and a bull from the English Knotting herd were imported by Kathy Lovejoy, of Vancouver Island. Jane Paynter’s Knotting herd was known for its high milk yields. Kathy kept her Dexters only for a few years before disbursing the cows to June Goose (Glencara herd) in Vancouver. Sadly, both cows were destroyed at the height of the English BSE scare, as part of the Canadian government’s BSE protection program.
According to George Klein, “Doris purchased our heifer calves to start her herd. We had at the same time a good-looking bull calf. She did not take him as she was going to England for a bull. Six weeks later she called and said nothing in England looked as good as our bull calf and she would take him. Tooooo late! He had been steered.” The Crowes, and their friends, the Higgins (grandson of the Irish O’Higgins who created a ‘kingdom’ for himself in Argentina in the 1800s), became the major forces behind the Dexter revival in Canada.
:
By 1983, the Crowes had sold or traded a number of animals with Jim Johnson, an established breeder in the U.S. and the (then) current President of the American Dexter association. This move added O’Briar Hill genetics into their herd, as well as spreading Woodmagic breeding south of the border.
:
Eric Lawlor collected semen from his bull, Aldebaran Priapus, making Priapus the first Canadian Dexter AI bull. Shortly thereafter, Priapus’ sire, Trillium Cluny, was collected and a son, Trillium Chabotte, was also collected (by a Belgian Blue breeder who learned of a need for Dexter semen in Australia, and capitalized on the knowledge).
:
In 1984, two cows and a bull from the English Knotting herd were imported by Kathy Lovejoy, of Vancouver Island. Jane Paynter’s Knotting herd was known for its high milk yields. Kathy kept her Dexters only for a few years before disbursing the cows to June Goose (Glencara herd) in Vancouver. Sadly, both cows were destroyed at the height of the English BSE scare, as part of the Canadian government’s BSE protection program.
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Little Ladydale of Knotting, a 1984 import.
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The bull, Lucifer of Knotting, was sold separately to Paul Taylor and Judy Moseley. In 1989, they had 1,500 straws of semen collected, and offered it on both sides of the border. Lucifer was the first red Dexter in Canada, and has been very influential in establishing that coat colour in Dexters in North America, as well as vastly improving udders in his offspring.
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Continued in Part II
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