Md. Farmer Preserves Native Milking Shorthorns

Submitted by Editor on Fri, 06/27/2008 - 11:27am.

Laurie Savage
Maryland Correspondent

KEYMAR, Md. — David Dell’s love of history is evident as he points to each of his beloved native Milking Shorthorns and recites their ancestry as far back as eight plus generations.

“Native Milking Shorthorns trace back to the original Coates herdbook from England,” said Dell, who raises 30 head of the cattle with his wife, Judy.
George Coates published the first Milking Shorthorn herdbook in 1822, listing 710 bulls and 850 cows. The volume was the first cattle pedigree herdbook in the world.

“The native Milking Shorthorn goes back to the old stud book before it was open to outcrosses of other dairy breeds,” said Jeannette Beranger, American Livestock Breeds Conservancy research and technical programs manager.

Dell runs about 100 head of cattle in a cow-calf operation. In addition to the natives, he also owns beef Shorthorns, American Milking Shorthorns and about 10 to 12 Irish Milking Shorthorns, another strain he is propagating for uniqueness.

“Irish are more rare than the natives,” Dell said, with 50 of these cattle in the United States.

Native Milking Shorthorns fall into three categories, Dell said. Some are the beef type and some the dairy type. His are more in the middle, the dual-purpose type.

Full-grown natives ideally weigh about 1,200 to 1,400 pounds. Longevity is one of their traits.

Native mothers typically produce more milk than beef Shorthorn mothers, he said. “I like a cow that milks good, they always produce the best calves.”

Many old-time bulls are used in breeding, making consistency challenging, but Dell has found consistency in mothering ability and calving ease. He collects 100 units of semen from each bull he raises for linebreeding.

“A lot of it is experimentation,” he said.

American Milking Shorthorn Society Executive Secretary David Kendall observes Dell’s breeding and advises him.

“There’s a big push on the native end of it,” Dell said.

Breeders of the natives network with one another. Dell has traded semen with a breeder in Utah. He will register a calf under his farm name as well as that of a New England breeder who gave him the semen to “promote the joint effort of breeders,” he said.

Dell has owned natives for nine years. He started showing beef Shorthorns in the late 1970s because there was less competition in the breed. His parents, Walter and Sylvia Dell, were instrumental in getting him started.

The native breeder works full time, farms full time and is a full-time dad to four children, ages 14, 10, 7 and 2. The children show American Milking Shorthorns at the Carroll County Fair.

Dell boasts seven different female bloodlines in his herd and traces their ancestry at the National Agricultural Library.

He believes preserving the history and future of the natives is important to preserving the breed and made donations from six of his native bulls to USDA’s Agricultural Research Service’s National Animal Germplasm Program.

The ALBC recently designated the native Milking Shorthorn as critical.

“What’s happening over the past year is that the Milking Shorthorn is in quite a bit of trouble over in England,” Beranger said.

The American population is outnumbering those in England. In 2006, there were 600 to 700 native Milking Shorthorns in the United States, she said. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust, based in the United Kingdom, tracked fewer than 100 of the breed in that region.

“We have to safeguard the genetics we have because the genetics over there are disappearing. This year the level of importance jumped up. We realized we have some pretty important animals over here,” she said.

Marjorie Bender, ALBC research and technical programs director, said to be considered critical, there must be fewer than 200 animals registered annually in the United States with a global population of under 2,000.

“We serve the breeds that are a part of U.S. history. We also keep an eye on what’s going on globally,” Bender said.

ALBC helps to ensure the future of agriculture through the genetic conservation of endangered breeds of livestock and poultry.

Dell said the old-time breeds will make a comeback because of high feed costs. Farmers will look harder at breeds that are better feed converters.

Maybe the ALBC will list the dairy farmer next on the endangered breeds list.

“It’s not easy making a profit dairying,” Beranger said. “It’s hard being a farmer these days.”

For more information on breeding native Milking Shorthorns, contact Dell by e-mail at kccdell@hotmail.com.