Original Article 4: Preface to 1890 Herdbook

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"Preface to the Kerry and Dexter Herd Book, Volume One, 1890"
Royal Dublin Society
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In January 1887, the "Farmer's Gazette" published the first register of Dexter (and Kerry) cattle in Ireland. This ran for about three years and was then published by the Royal Dublin Society as the Kerry and Dexter Herdbook, with Volume 1 appearing in 1890. The Irish Kerry and Dexter Society was not formed until 1917. Duncan MacIntyre, a Vet and Dexter breeder on the Isle of Bute in Scotland, typed out this Preface and on 13 November 2004 posted it on the Discussion Board of www.dextercattleforsale.co.uk. Thanks to Duncan for his work on the keyboard, allowing us access to this significant historical writing.
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The full listing of Dexter Bulls and Dexter Cows in this Herd Book are also provided on this website. [Not yet on this Blog]
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~~ Start of Herdbook Preface ~~
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The interesting attention devoted to the Kerry and Dexter Breeds of Cattle induced the Royal Dublin Society, early in the year 1887, to establish a Herd-Book for these breeds.
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Previous attempts in this direction had been made. In 1879 the County Kerry Agricultural Society passed a resolution approving of the publication of a Herd-book under their own auspices; but difficulties arose which prevented the project from being carried out.
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The "Farmer's Gazette" undertook the publication of a Register, and in January, 1887, published the first issue of their "Register of Pure Kerry Cattle and Dexters". This register extended to three volumes, including 46 Kerry Bulls and 100 Kerry Cows. It did not include any Dexter Bulls and only 10 Dexter Cows. The Royal Dublin Society acquired from the publishers of the "Farmer's Gazette" their rights in connexion with this register; and the Cattle, with the numbers originally assigned to them, are now included in the Society's Herd-book.
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Kerry Cattle were shown for the first time at Cattle Shows of the Royal Dublin Society at the Spring Show held in 1844. A distinct class for Dexters was first introduced in 1876. It is generally believed that Kerry Cattle are the descendants of a well-defined native breed of great antiquity; but it is difficult to trace the history of the breed further back than the middle of the last century. Since that time the character of the breed in the remoter parts of Kerry seems to have undergone little, if any, change.
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Mr Wilde (afterwards Sir William Wilde) stated, as his opinion, in 1858, that about 25 years previously there were four native breeds of oxen in Ireland:-
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(1) The Old Irish Cow of small stature, long in the back, with moderate-sized, wide-spreading, slightly elevated and projecting horns; in colour they were principally black and red.
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(2) The Irish Long-horns, resembling the Lancashire and Craven; in some cases the horns were wide-spreading and only slightly curved, but frequently the horns were so completely curved inwards as to cross in front of or behind the mouth: these were large animals of a brindled-red colour.
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(3) the Maol or Moyle, a polled or hornless variety, similar to the Angus; a medium-sized docile animal, dun, black, or white in colour, rarely mottled; much used for draught and ploughing.
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(4) The Kerry, somewhat of a middle horn.
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Of this animal [the Kerry] he states:-"
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"In its native state it is usually much smaller than the old Irish Cow; in colour it is either red, brindled, or black; it is exceedingly hardy; its milk is abundant and rich, and it possesses the additional advantage of rapidly fattening upon very moderate fare when brought from its native mountains into the plains and fertile country. This race has small heads and rather short horns turning upwards. They are very docile; although Fynes Moryson writing in the times of Elizabeth, and Thomas Dineley in those of Charles II, describe them as exceedingly ungentle, and 'as wicked and rebellious as the people'. Several possess many of the finest points belonging to the modern shorthorns, and are in some respects superior as a stock, owing to their fattening as well as their milking qualities. Their beef is also most excellent. As was recently stated by His Excellency Lord Eglinton, 'they are the thoroughbreds of cattle'. Their chief localities are at present the mountains of Kerry and Cork; but it is more than probable that in former times the race existed in all the regions of Ireland. It was said that during hard winters the people of Kerry thatched their cattle by means of mats tied on their backs."
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Wilde has described a number of ancient crania of cattle found in various parts of Ireland; but the modern Kerry Cow cannot be identified with any of these ancient remains. There are recently in the Dublin Science and Art Museum 53 crania of different varieties of oxen, from the bogs, lake deposits, and crannogs of Ireland; but there is not one which presents a close resemblance to the skull of a modern Kerry. It may be observed that none of these remains comes from the County Kerry: they are chiefly from Meath.
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The following references will be of interest to the owners of Kerry and Dexter Cattle:-
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Arthur Young, referring to Lord Doneraile's experiences of cattle on his estate in the County Cork, says:- "He tried many breeds of cattle, and finds that the long-horned English Cow is the best for fattening. The Holderness for giving much thin, poor milk, but are too heavy for winter feeding. The Kerry Cow is much the best for milking in quantity of good milk."
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Writing in 1807, about the mountainous regions of west Kerry, Isaac Wilde says:- "This country was formerly remarkable for a vary small and beautiful breed of black cattle; but the people have been seized with the spirit of improvement, and the true Kerry Cow, as it is called, is now rarely to be found, excepting amongst the mountains in the vicinity of Bantry Bay. The size of this animal does not exceed that of an ordinary yearling calf. From the prevalent inclination of the people to discard the native stock of their hills, it is presumed that they derive more profit from the enlarged breed; but there are some of a contrary opinion, who still maintain their attachment to the ancient race; and who contend that from their hardy character and the abundance and richness of their milk, they are peculiarly adapted to the situation and circumstance of the country."
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The same author mentions as a well-known fact that Kerry butter, which was then regarded as amongst the best produced in Ireland, was re-made in London, deprived of its salt, and sold as the produce of Epping.
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In the early part of the present century the Royal Dublin Society undertook a general survey of Ireland, for the purpose of developing the industrial resources of the country. The County Kerry was not separately surveyed; but the adjoining County of Cork was surveyed for the Society by the Rev. Horatio Townsend. The author refers frequently in the course of his survey to the partiality of the farmers for the small breed of cattle for dairy purposes. These cattle seem to have been closely related to the Kerries of the present day. Referring to the cattle of the Barony of Carbery, in the south-west of the county, he says:- "the cattle of this district , except those possessed by gentlemen, are of a small size, seldom weighing more than three hundred and a half weight, and frequently not more than two. The breed is now a mixed one, of various colours; formerly they were all black. In the more remote and mountainous parts of the district this colour still predominates; but few, I believe, of the pure native breed at present remain. They are in general, very good milkers - eight pottles, or sixteen quarts a day, being no uncommon produce from a cow of three hundredweight. The usual price for a new milch cow of this description is from eight to ten guineas. Small beasts of all kinds are preferred by the farmers as being better suited to the circumstances of the country, more capable of enduring hardship, and more easily subsisted."
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A few years later Edward Wakefield writes:- " The Kerry Stock are a distinct breed, but they are not to be procured of the true blood, because the long-horned are now so much dispersed throughout the country that the breeds have become intermixed, The Duke of Bedford desired me to purchase some of this kind for him; but though I rode many miles and made every possible inquiry, I was not able to find any which I thought free from admixture"
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The views expressed by David Low about Kerries nearly half a century ago, are of special interest at the present time. He says:- " These cattle are hardy and capable of subsisting on scanty fare. Although stunted in size when brought from the bogs and sterile pastures on which they are reared, they make a wonderful advance in size, even though several years old, when supplied with suitable food. The fat of their beef is well admixed with the muscular parts, or, in technical language, marbled; and they fatten well in the inside, a character which renders them valuable to the butcher, and distinguishes them, in a remarkable degree, from the long-horned breeds of the lower country.
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"But the peculiar value of the Kerry breed is the adaptation of the females to the purposes of the domestic dairy. In milking properties the Kerry cow, taking size into account, is equal, or superior, to any in the British Islands. It is the large quantity of milk yielded by an animal so small which renders the Kerry cow so generally valued by the cottagers and smaller tenants of Ireland. She is frequently termed the poor man's cow, and she merits this appellation by her capacity of subsisting on such fare as he has the means to supply.
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"This fine little breed has been greatly neglected: scarce any means have been used to produce a progressive development of form, by supplying proper nourishment to the breeding parents and the young, and no general care has been bestowed on preserving the purity of the stock. In almost every part of Ireland the breed has been crossed with the longhorns; and a great proportion of the cows of the country, known under the name of Kerries, are the result of crosses of this kind, and so have deviated in a greater or less degree from the native type, and almost always for the worse.
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"A few honourable exceptions, however, exist to this general neglect of the mountain dairy breed of Ireland. One attempt had succeeded to such a degree as to form a new breed, which partially exists with the characters communicated to it. It has been termed the Dexter Breed. It was formed by the late Mr. Dexter, agent to Lord Hawarden. This gentleman is said to have produced his curious breed by selection from the best of the mountain cattle of the district. He communicated to it a remarkable roundness of form and shortness of legs. The steps, however, by which this improvement was effected, have not been sufficiently recorded; and some doubt may exist whether the original was the pure Kerry, or some other breed proper to the central parts of Ireland now unknown, or whether some foreign blood, as the Dutch, was not mixed with the native race. One character of the Dexter breed is frequently observed in certain cattle of Ireland, namely, short legs, and a small space from the knee and hock to the hoofs. This has probably given rise to the saying sometimes heard of, 'Tipperary beef down to the heels'. However the Dexter breed has been formed, it still retains its name, and the roundness and depth of carcase which distinguished it. When any individual of a Kerry drove appears remarkably round an short-legged, is is common for the country people to call it a Dexter...
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"The Kerry cows afford admirable first crosses with the Short-horns, Herefords, and other larger breeds. Of these crossed, that with the Shorthorns is the most general, and appears to be the best. The crosses are found well adapted to fattening as well as to the dairy; and the profit from this system is so immediate, that it is to be believed that it will be more largely resorted to than a progressive improvement of the parent stock.
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"Nevertheless, the cultivation of the pure dairy breed of the Kerry mountains ought not to be neglected by individuals or public associations. The breed is yet the best that is reared over a large extent of country, from its adaptation to the existing state of agriculture, and to the humid mountains and bogs in which it is naturalized. Were it to be reared with care in a good district, the form would be gradually more developed, and the Kerry breed might then bear the same relation to the mountain breeds of Ireland that the Castle Martin does to those of Wales, or the West Highland to those of the North of Scotland."
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It is hoped that the publication of the Kerry and Dexter Herd-book by the Royal Dublin Society will have the effect of further developing the good qualities for which these cattle are now celebrated. It can scarcely fail to preserve the distinctive characters of the breeds; and it will afford the guarantee of pedigree which has been so anxiously desired.
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RICHARD J MOSS
Royal Dublin Society,
September 1890
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RULES AND REGULATIONS
FOR THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY'S KERRY AND DEXTER HERD BOOK
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FOUNDATION HERD
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1. All animals entered in the first, second, and third issues of the Kerry Register, as published by the Farmer's Gazette, shall be accepted as the basis of the Royal Dublin Society's Kerry and Dexter Herd-book. The numbers given to each animal shall be the Herd Book number of that animal.
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2. Any animal not entered in the Kerry or Dexter Herd Book which shall receive a Prize or Commendation at any Show held in the United Kingdom, where there is a separate classification for Kerries and Dexters, shall be eligible for entry in the Herd Book, provided that the Royal Dublin Society shall nominate the Judges at such Show, and that they comply with the following conditions as to Colour:-
Kerry Bulls must be pure black, with the exception of a few grey hairs about the organs of generation, in animals of exceptional merit.
Kerry Cows and Heifers must be pure black, with the exception of white on the udder, in animals of exceptional merit.
Dexter Bulls and Cows may be either black or red, with a little white.
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PEDIGREE STOCK
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3. Any animal is eligible for entry which is the produce of a sire and a dam both of which are duly entered, or are eligible for entry, in the Herd Book. In the latter case the sire and dam must also be entered.
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4. Any animal is eligible for entry if the sire, and the dam's sire, and the grand-dam's sire, are all entered, or eligible for entry, in the Herd Book; the sires not already entered must also be entered.
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5. Each application for entry must be made on the Official Form, and all the particulars required in that Certificate must be given, if known.
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6. The application must be accompanied by a Statutory Declaration as to the correctness of the pedigree and other particulars required, and also a Certificate from the owner of the sire of the animal to be entered, certifying that the dam was served by his bull, and giving the date of the last service.
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7. No application for entry shall be entertained until a fee of 5s for each animal is paid to the Society.
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8. The Society reserves the right to discontinue or alter any of the foregoing Rules, or to add any new Rule thereto.
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9. Entry Forms, etc, will be supplied on application to "The Agricultural Superintendent”, Royal Dublin Society, Kildare Street, Dublin.
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