A nice message from Beryl Rutherford in England

I was pleased to read the following letter in this issue of the PDCA Record. For those new to Dexter cattle, John Patterson has a lot of information about Beryl Rutherford and the Woodmagic herd on the Dex-Info web site.

Dear Editor,

I was delighted to receive 'The Record', and to find amongst the membership so many familiar names. Despite an attempt to read between the lines, I am little the wiser, I am,of course, sad to learn of the upset, but I know that amongst those I am happy to call my friends, there is a very strong devotion to the little Dexter that I love. In particular, I know that Rosemary has spent years promoting and working for the breed, and has to take a lot of the credit for the success of the ADCA. At the moment she appears to be working harder than ever. I am, therefore, wishing the Purebred Dexter Cattle Association every success in the future. I was particularly cheered by the note on page 28 - 'The PDCA was formed to provide an opportunity, not a protest'.

I congratulate you on the presentation of your first magazine, and I hope your members help you out with plenty of contributions.

As somebody who has for years advocated breeding out the bulldog gene, can I say to Donna Martin, that although none of my cattle have carried the recessive for over 30 years, they are still the same mischievous intelligent little characters they always were, and I promise removing the bulldog gene will not detract from that one iota. Neither do they need to be very different in looks, by selection one can bred for the shorter leg, as Julie Cavanagh confirmed, my 'Woodmagic' are mostly in the range of 38" - 40".

Wishing you the best of luck, and looking forward to the next issue.

Beryl Rutherford