Society Registration Procedures

  • Birth notified females can be fully registered up to 6 months.
  • Up to 45 days of age: £5.00
  • From 45 days to 6 months: online £28.00 – paper £32.00
  • Females upgraded 6 – 12 months: £58.00
  • Over 12 months a DNA/PV needs to be issued: £100.00
  • Over 2 years old – no registration and referred to Council
  • Only Full, Family or Junior members may register cattle.
  • Please refer to the Society Fees for a list of current fees.

Birth Notifications

All calves must be birth notified within 45 days of birth. You will incur overage fees if you miss the deadline of 45 days. Birth notification of all animals gives the database a complete and accurate record.

This can be done online: You need your membership number and a password from the office.
If you do not own the sire of the calf an email will be sent to notify the owner of the sire, who will need to contact the office if the information is incorrect

If not notifying the birth on-line you must send a Registration and Bull Service form to the office – these can be downloaded off the Society website or please contact the Society if you need paper copies posting to you. The old yellow birth cards are no longer in use. The details of the animal are then recorded onto the Dexter Cattle Society database.

NB The onus is on owners of bulls which have been used by other breeders to inform the office as soon as possible if there are any issues with registrations of calves

You have two choices when filling in the form
1 Birth notify only –for all male calves and animals intended for slaughter i.e. castrated males or inferior females. Tick the box for notification only and enclose he appropriate fee. You will be sent a yellow notification certificate.
2 Female Registration – Please enclose the correct fee and tick the box for registration. You will then be sent a green certificate, which is the animal’s full registration certificate.

When registering births, members must remember that up to 30 letters/digits including prefix, spaces and name are allowed in order to fit on the certificates.

Junior membership (under 16 years) is restricted to owning four registered or birth notified animals. If a junior member registers more than this number of animals, full membership must be applied for.

All animals must be fully registered before breeding; offspring cannot be registered from birth notified animals.

Calves sired by a birth notified or unregistered bull cannot be registered by the Society
Members using or hiring a bull must check it is appropriately ear tagged and the information matches the passport.

Members must abide by the Breed Standard. A formal contract is signed (either hard copy or on line) when they birth notify or register any animal. If in doubt the owner should contact the Society Office

An animal born on your property/holding:
As the breeder, even if you intend to sell a mother and calf, you must Birth notify the calf in your name and Prefix, and also register it with the British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS).
This is particularly helpful for first time buyers as it may take them a while to join the Society and get their Prefix registered.

Transfer of ownership
The vendor (seller) is responsible for transferring the animals to the new owner and for paying the transfer fee. The certificate will be then be re-issued with the new owner’s details.
Offspring cannot be registered by the new owner unless the transfer has taken place. If you are selling an animal in calf, please make sure you give the purchaser a bull service certificate so they have details of the sire

Male Registrations

Male calves are birth notified rather than registered immediately.

Testing to register Bulls

Members are reminded that if they wish to register a bull for inclusion in the Herd Database, the bull will now have to be DNA profiled and Chondrodysplasia tested prior to the issue of a Pedigree Certificate. This will include DNA testing for certification of both parents (parent verification) and the bull’s Pedigree Certificate will be stamped “parent verified”. Please contact the DCS office for appropriate guidance and testing arrangements. The hair sample kits will be posted out to the owner once the invoice raised for the testing has been settled.  Once the hair sample has been taken the owner will post the kits direct to the lab for testing.  The results from the lab will be sent direct back to the DCS office.

Members are reminded that:-

  • the Bull should have been birth notified within 45 days;
  • the Bull must have fully registered pedigree parents;
  • only fully registered Pedigree Bulls can sire offspring in order for their progeny to gain full pedigree status.

Chondrodysplasia Testing
The society has been able to offer testing for the Chondrodysplasia [bulldog] gene to members since 2001, through VHL Laboratories in the Netherlands. The results can be expected in 5-6 weeks.
Please apply to the Secretary for a pack with full instructions for taking a hair sample.

Interpretation of results:
BDI-N: DNA testing indicates that this animal is not a carrier

BDI-C: DNA testing indicates that this animal is a carrier

BD1-A DNA testing indicates that this animal is affected

Hair Samples
For the future of the Dexter Cattle Society, it is very important that hair samples are taken from breeding cows when they die so these can be stored and may be sent off for analysis to establish the animal’s DNA profile if in the future any offspring need to be parent verified. It will not be possible to export unless an animal has DNA parent verification.

If you are not sure if an animal has been profiled please contact the office.

Herd Return
A herd return should be completed by each breeder at the end of the year via Manage Your Herd in the On-Line Herd Book in order to allow the Office to update and ensure the accuracy of the Database. If you require a paper herd return posting to you, please contact the Office.