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The Breeding Forward™ Series:
A structured Path from Breed Structure To Measurable Progress in Dexter Cattle
The Breeding Forward series from Silver Maple Dexters examines the principles, responsibilities, and applied strategies of breed stewardship in Dexter cattle. These essays challenge assumptions, clarify purpose, and propose frameworks for measurable improvement across generations.
Grounded in over 25 years of Dexter breeding and a longer heritage in livestock, the series draws on lived experience, structured study, and breed-specific application. Together, they form a call to action: preserve what defines the Dexter, and improve what carries it forward.
The essays build on each other. Start with Beyond Numbers: Structure, Standards, and Stewardship, then The Standard is Not the Summit and finally The Breeder's Equation for the intended progression.
The Breeder's Burden, is the fourth and final entry in the Breeding Forward Series. This closing essay turns to a different task: to define the burden itself and the weight that falls on all who take up the work of purebred livestock breeding.
Read inline below or download.
All Breeding Forward™ materials—including essays, educational guides, classification resources, and Breeding Forward: The Dexter Stewardship Initiative™ are the intellectual property of Silver Maple Dexters (SMD). These works may be shared for educational purposes with proper attribution, but they may not be reproduced, altered, or distributed in part or whole to imply endorsement, partnership, or program participation without written permission from Silver Maple Dexters. “Breeding Forward™” and “Breeding Forward Dexter Stewardship Program™” are trademarks of Silver Maple Dexters.