Registration, Ancestry, and Identity
Dexter breeding stock is usually sold as registered, so file each animal's registration certificate and ancestry record beside its ear tag number, birth date, sire, and dam. Because Dexters are often bought by other smallholders starting herds, your records are part of what a buyer is purchasing. Keep a note of horned or polled status and coat colour as registered, since both appear in breed paperwork and should match the animal in the field. When a calf is born, record it promptly while the dam pairing is certain.
Genotype and Inherited-Condition Results
Dexter breeders commonly track test results for inherited conditions associated with the breed, and results for breeding animals should be kept permanently and shared honestly with buyers. Record which laboratory report belongs to which animal and whether the result applies to the animal itself or was inferred from its parents. Guessing at this is not good enough when a mating decision depends on it. If you buy in a bull, ask for his results before he arrives and file them with his own record, not in a general folder.
Calving and Milk Records for a Dual-Purpose Breed
Dexters are kept for both beef and house milk, so record calving dates, calving ease, calf identity, and the dam's mothering and udder notes. If you milk, keep a simple daily or weekly yield note alongside the stage of lactation and the calf-sharing arrangement you are using, because a Dexter cow nursing a calf while being milked will not read like a dairy-breed record. Notes on which cows settle back into calf readily after calving support the fertility claims smallholders value in this breed.
Growth, Health, and Condition Notes
Log weights or condition scores at weaning, breeding, and before winter, vaccinations and parasite treatments, and any illness or treatment with the animal's identity and date. Dexters are thrifty cattle, which makes changes worth noticing: a cow losing condition on feed that suits the rest of the herd deserves a written note and a closer look, not just a mental flag.
Sales and Herd Changes
Record every sale, purchase, loan, or death, with dates and the other party's details for animals that move. A small herd's history stays accurate only if departures are written down as carefully as arrivals.
Records When a Dexter Does More Than One Job
Many Dexters live several lives in a small herd: a cow may rear a beef calf one year, supply house milk the next, and later be sold as a proven breeder to another smallholder. The record should follow those changes of role instead of describing only her breeding status. Note when milking started and stopped, how a steer calf grew compared with its herdmates, and any season when a cow was borrowed, loaned, or run with a neighbour's bull. Those practical details are exactly what a future keeper needs and exactly what memory blurs first. Keeping them also sharpens your own buying: after a few seasons you can see which Dexter families milk persistently, which produce the steadiest beef calves, and which simply occupy grass without repaying it.
Keeping each Dexter's registration, test results, calving notes, and health record in a KinsLe Pet Passport gives you one portable packet to hand a vet, a buyer, or a new keeper without hunting through folders.