AI Willie sees 100% success rate with Dexter breeding programme
Caithness AI technician Willie Mackay has reported a 100 per cent success rate with a cattle breeding programme centred on a pedigree Dexter herd.
Last autumn, crofter Adreain Gill, of Bruan Park, Ulbster, put forward four of his herd for insemination to semen from the Rare Breeds Trust at Kenilworth in Warwickshire after the Dexter bull Butterbox Morris.
Mr Mackay, of Oldhall – known to all in the Caithness farming fraternity as AI Willie – carried out the inseminations.
The results saw Adreain’s Dexter herd increase with three female calves and one male calf, all safely born within 15 days of each other.
The Dexter breed is the smallest and one of the hardiest of all the British cattle breeds, having originated in south-west Ireland in the 18th century. It is a miniature milk and beef animal, usually black but sometimes red, with a long life and low running costs.
Mr Mackay says an ordinary Dexter cow will give 500 to 600 gallons of milk in a 305-day lactation.
“When you take part in delivering an AI cattle breeding programme that turns out to be a 100 per cent success, with all the planning, hard work and preparation in getting things right from a well-looked-after herd, and with a synchronised insemination process yielding the best possible results, it makes me proud," said Mr Mackay, who now has 53 years’ experience under his belt.
Adreain – who has been crofting for 26 years and whose day job is at Dounreay – has a total of 11 pedigree Dexters and their followers.
Bruan Park extends to 60 hectares of rough grazing and hill ground a few miles south of Thrumster.
This year's planned AI programme will see a further three Dexter cows going to the pure Dexter bull and two going to a black Highland bull.
Mr Mackay added: “I am so delighted for Adreain and his daughter Iona who put an endless amount of time in looking after their rare breed of Dexter cattle. The results they have got, showing what this small-in-stature breed can produce, are impressive."